Geopolitics
The Sacred and the State: Patriarch Kirill’s Birthday and the Geopolitical Weaponization of Faith
The 80th birthday of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill will be used by Moscow to project geopolitical legitimacy through ecclesiastical diplomacy, amid international condemnation of Russia's war in Ukraine. This is a cynical and dangerous perversion of religion, turning a sacred institution into a propaganda tool for imperialist aggression, and exposes the West's selective outrage which ignores its own long history of weaponizing faith for colonial conquest.
