Just hours before the memorial service for slain American activist Charlie Kirk began at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, Pravoslavie.ru and its English counterpart OrthoChristian.com published an article by Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkunov — arguably the hierarch closest to the Kremlin — with an obvious intent: to glorify Kirk. The timing was more than symbolic — it revealed faith reimagined for geopolitical ends. The text, immediately promoted by Kirill Dmitriev of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, revealed far more about Russia’s current political anxieties than about American conservatism. Shevkunov is no ordinary cleric. The former head of Moscow’s Sretensky Monastery and author of the bestselling “Everyday Saints,” he has long been considered one of President Vladimir Putin’s spiritual advisers and maintains close ties to the Kremlin.
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