{"id":218272,"date":"2025-05-06T11:35:59","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T08:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/df.news\/?p=218272"},"modified":"2025-05-07T11:36:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T08:36:33","slug":"putin-keeps-playing-holy-czar-role-referring-to-moscow-as-third-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/2025\/05\/06\/putin-keeps-playing-holy-czar-role-referring-to-moscow-as-third-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin keeps playing \u201choly czar\u201d role, referring to Moscow as \u201cThird Rome\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian President Vladimir Putin once again claimed that Moscow is the \u201cThird Rome\u201d, trying to back his neo-imperial agenda with pseudo-religious rhetoric. He spoke in the film by Saida Medvedeva and Pavel Zarubin entitled \u201cRussia. Kremlin. Putin. 25 years\u201d, released on Rossiya-1 TV, reports 7×70<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Putin once again recalled the medieval concept of \u201cMoscow is the Third Rome\u201d, where supposedly Russia is the successor of Byzantium and \u201ctrue Christianity\u201d, as opposed to the West, which, according to him, \u201chas deformed\u201d the faith. \u201cWe have decided that we are the successors of true Christianity. Moscow is the Third Rome, there will be no fourth one. Here we are, true Christians,\u201d the Russian leader said.<\/p>\n

Such statements are a typical example of the Kremlin\u2019s ideological manipulation, where historical myths are used to justify expansion, aggression, and interference in other countries\u2019 affairs. Putin contrasts Russia with the West, attributing to Protestants and Catholics \u201cthe desire for material gain,\u201d while portraying Russia as the world\u2019s alleged moral and spiritual leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Russia, people always talk about the moral principle,\u201d Putin declared pompously, at the same time justifying Moscow\u2019s aggressive policy by supposedly protecting spirituality. Such rhetoric has nothing to do with Christian values; instead, it is designed to create the image of a \u201cbesieged fortress\u201d and demonize the West.<\/p>\n

The Russian president also repeated the old Kremlin talking point that the West is \u201cencroaching on Russia\u201d and \u201cseeks to divide it.\u201d Once again, Putin is trying to explain Russia\u2019s geopolitical isolation not by its own aggression (in particular, against Ukraine) but by the alleged hostility of the outside world to \u201cmoral\u201d Russia.<\/p>\n

There were also historical distortions as Putin claimed that the negative assessment of Ivan the Terrible had arisen because he \u201cremained Orthodox.\u201d Ignoring the facts of mass repressions, bloody crimes, and political terror during the time of Ivan IV, Putin portrays him as victim of the Catholic West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russian President Vladimir Putin once again claimed that Moscow is the \u201cThird Rome\u201d, trying to back his neo-imperial agenda with pseudo-religious rhetoric. He spoke in the film by Saida Medvedeva and Pavel Zarubin entitled \u201cRussia. Kremlin. Putin. 25 years\u201d, released on Rossiya-1 TV, reports 7×70. Putin once again recalled the medieval concept of \u201cMoscow is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":164031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"telegram_tosend":false,"telegram_tosend_message":"","telegram_tosend_target":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5142,5143],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-218272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-security"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/df.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/184080.jpg?fit=1200%2C661&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218273,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218272\/revisions\/218273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}