The Kremlin has a long history of interfering in the life of the Orthodox Church. Tsars, General Secretaries, and Presidents have seen in the Church a partner, a source of legitimacy, and a threat to their authority. We learned last week that Vladimir Putin has brought this Russian tradition into the digital age: Russian military intelligence has sought to hack and surveil His All Holiness Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
Father Alexander (center) with Matushka Juliana (left) and Alexander Solzhenitsyn (right),
winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature.
























