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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Calendars, Prayerbooks, and Chatgroups from the Russian-Ukrainian War

Nadieszda Kizenko is a professor of history at University at Albany–SUNY.

At first glance, a Russian-language prayerbook titled Mothers, Wives, Sisters, Let Us Pray for Our Warriors seems to be nothing special. It’s small. It’s made of paper. It’s cheap. Much of what’s inside has appeared in other places and other prayerbooks. And yet it represents a useful framework for looking at how the Russian Orthodox Church is attempting to engage women of faith in the current war against Ukraine. Reading this book prompts the question: what does it mean to have a book scripted by Church authorities for private prayer on a political issue?

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Spiritual Decolonization, National Security, and Religious Freedom: Squaring a Triangle in the Case of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Andriy Fert is a UNET non-resident fellow at Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien in Berlin.

Dmytro Vovk is a visiting associate professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

In June 2023, the fashionable Ukrainian multimedia cultural project Ukraїner published an article on decolonization. Decolonization, as the author describes it, is “a process of cleansing the public space from the markers of (Russian) occupation,” including monuments, mosaics, names of streets, and public premises associated with the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia.

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