A Moralist International Under Arms? Russia’s Role in the Global Culture Wars, Prior to and During Its War With Ukraine

Kristina Stoeckl is a full professor of sociology at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome.

In the decade preceding Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, from roughly 2012 until 2022, the Russian Orthodox Church, Russian politicians, state diplomats, and civil society organizations financed by Kremlin- or church-affiliated entrepreneurs worked in unison to create the image of Russia as the defender of “traditional values” in Europe and in the world.

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Orthodox Churches in the Baltic States Torn Between Moscow and Constantinople

Sebastian Rimestad is a research associate (Heisenberg-Fellow) at the Institute for the Study of Religions, Leipzig University (Germany).

The rhetoric of the Russian Orthodox Church concerning the ongoing war in Ukraine is not only a thorny issue for the Orthodox bishops and faithful in Ukraine but also presents an especially tricky dilemma for Orthodox Churches in the Baltic States. In Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the Orthodox Church is primarily the religious home of the post-Soviet Russian minority, although there are vocal and influential Orthodox actors in all three states who do not identify as Russian.

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The Russian Orthodox Church as a Tool for Kremlin Influence in the Balkans

Robert C. Blitt is the Toms Foundation Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Tennessee College of Law.

Russia’s connections in the Balkans run deep, tapping into pan-Slavic and pan-Orthodox currents, including selective efforts to support national independence following the nineteenth-century defeat of the Ottoman empire. More recent history, such as Russia’s still-seething rejection of the NATO bombing of Serbia and its strident opposition to Kosovo’s independence, has built on these previous commonalities. The weaving of this cultural and religious affinity narrative is also laminated onto a hardened substrate of Russian upset at the West. Thus, the 1878 Congress of Berlin marking the end of the Russo-Turkish war functions as an anchor point for Russia’s lingering grievance of claimed Western interference and meddling, which continues to be refreshed and expanded on today.

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