How bad is Putin, really?
With President Trump’s announcement that Ukraine and Russia will begin peace talks immediately, the ball is now in Vladimir Putin’s court.
Last week, Putin was a no-show in Istanbul for the negotiations that he called for, while President Zelenskyy was ready to meet him. Instead, his army dropped bombs on Sumy, Ukraine, killing nine civilians hours after talks ended. The same city where 35 people, mostly churchgoers, were killed by Russian bombs on Palm Sunday.
As the talks begin, the international community, which will play an integral role in brokering and potentially guaranteeing any agreement, must have a clear understanding of who Putin truly is. Any peace deal must protect the core rights of the Ukrainian people, including and especially freedom of religion.
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Unfortunately, there has been a concerted effort among a handful of influential voices on the political right, including self-described Christians, that aims to rehabilitate the image of Vladimir Putin as a pro-family, conservative Christian.
At a Conservative Political Action Conference event, one speaker said, “Russia is a Christian nationalist nation … I identify more with Putin’s Christian values than I do with Joe Biden’s.” Days later, at the America First Political Action Conference, Nick Fuentes, who had previously tweeted that he wished “Putin was president of America,” called for a round of applause for Putin with the crowd spontaneously chanting “Putin!, Putin!”
Putin's comments in interviews with Western journalists may lead some to believe he is a Christian leader, but judging him by his actions, he is nothing more than a dictator committed to destroying anything in his path to recreate the Russian empire.
As history shows, there is typically one group of people that can break the yoke of dictatorships — people of faith. Knowing this, people of faith — Evangelicals, Catholics, Jews — have been in his crosshairs. Only the Russian Orthodox Church, which the Kremlin controls and supports Russia’s brutal war, has been spared.
Because of Putin, publicly preaching the Gospel is illegal across Russia and occupied Ukraine. Because of Putin, the Catholic church has been liquidated in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Because of Putin, Jews have been scapegoated for “tearing apart” Russian churches.
Those who find themselves in lands controlled by Russia are certainly suffering, but few have suffered more than Protestant and Catholic Christians. The brutality is real and well-documented.
In the documentary “A Faith Under Siege: Russia’s Hidden War on Ukraine’s Christians,” viewers can hear the story of Viktor, a Ukrainian Evangelical who was kept in a basement for 25 days by Russian forces. He was beaten with fists, feet, and baseball bats, and repeatedly shocked with a taser. During his imprisonment, a Russian Orthodox Priest tried to “cast demons” from him simply because he was a Protestant Christian. We’ve documented Viktor’s story here.
During Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022, Russia destroyed, shelled, or looted 650 Ukrainian churches and murdered more than 47 priests and pastors. Late in 2023, Putin presided over the plenary session of the “World Russian People’s Congress,” which later proclaimed through Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill that the invasion of Ukraine was a “holy war” not only on Ukraine but also on the collective West.
Putin has also created an environment hostile to faith within Russia. In 2016, preaching the Gospel was outlawed in Russia under the “Yarovaya laws,” which ban missionary activity outside of state-approved churches and religious sites, including online or in one’s own home, without a government permit. Most of the prosecutions based on these laws impact Evangelical Christians.
By 2021, the U.S. State Department added Russia to the “Worst Violators” of religious freedom list, alongside North Korea and Iran. Currently, only China has more people jailed for their faith than Russia. With faith largely outlawed, the country seems to have turned to the occult instead. Sixty percent of Russians have visited an esoteric specialist in their life, like sorcerers and fortune tellers, and Russia’s annual spending on “occult services” exceeds $24B USD, more than the country’s annual spending on groceries.
Putin has single-handedly subjugated millions of Ukrainians and Russians. As the Trump administration and the international community continue their laudable efforts to bring a just and enduring end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, they must remain clear-eyed on who is waging this war and focus on Putin’s actions, not his words.
Putin is not a defender of family values. Putin does not seek peace. There are voices trying to clean his reputation and ignore his atrocities, but the truth is clear: Putin is many things, but a man of faith, he is not.
Steven Moore is a former chief of staff in the U.S. House of Representatives and Founder of Ukraine Freedom Project. He is an executive producer of ‘A Faith Under Siege.’
Colby Barrett, JD, PE, is an entrepreneur, filmmaker, and former U.S. Marine Corps Captain who led infantry and scout/sniper platoons in the Pacific Rim and Middle East. He is the producer of ‘A Faith Under Siege.’
