MOSCOW – The Russian Orthodox Church is expanding its influence in what was once an officially godless state – and President Vladimir Putin appears eager to harness that resurgent power of faith to promote his own agenda.
Long consigned to society’s margins in the Soviet era of “scientific atheism,” religious activists in today’s Russia can get theater performances banned and exhibitions closed. Their next target is to end state funding for abortion in a land where nearly half of all pregnancies end in termination.
