
Behind the headlines
The priest who captivated Putin
One aspect of the war in Ukraine is often forgotten by Western analysts, says Juliet Samuel in The Sunday Telegraph: it is a conflict “with an overwhelmingly religious and cultural dimension”. Over the years, Vladimir Putin has become a leader “beloved by the Russian Orthodox Church”. He has cast the Ukrainian government as “a malignant tool of Satanic and degenerate Western forces”, with his attempted takeover of the country “the start of a great revival of the ancient Russian civilisation”.