Kremlin May Grant Citizenship to 50,000 Syrian Christians
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| Putin (LaPresse/AP Photo) |
Russian President Vladimir Putin has just eclipsed America's Marxist president on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People, and how telling it is also that the world's most persecuted Christians increasingly look to the Russian leader for protection, peace and justice.
Vatican Insider reports
that "defending Middle Eastern Christians has become a strategic asset
for Putin and is in perfect harmony with the Patriarchate of Moscow's
mission."
For a half century during Soviet-American summit meetings, American presidents raised the issue of the persecution of Christians and Jews in the Soviet Union. Can the day be far off when the persecution of believers in the United States is raised by Russian leaders?
The Kremlin is about to consider granting
citizenship to about 50 thousand Syrian Christians in the region of
Qualamun after they issued a collective request to Moscow’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. In statements issued in the past few days, the
spokesmen for President Putin and the Ministry confirmed that the
request is being examined by the highest Russian authorities. “This is
the first time since Christ’s birth that we, the Christians of Saidnaya
and Maara Saidnaya, Maalula and Maarun are being threatened with
expulsion from our land.”
The letter was full of praise for Putin’s Russia,
which was described as a “powerful factor for global peace and
stability”. But its remarks about western countries were less
flattering: “the aim of the terrorists who are being supported by the
West, is to eliminate our presence in our homeland. They use the most
abhorrent methods to achieve this, murdering ordinary people for
example.”
The fact that the Christian cause has caught the
attention of the highest levels of Russia’s government seems to imply
that the Kremlin sees their case as important in terms of geopolitics.
Indeed this may be the main reason Russia has been defending their
cause. The Patriarchate of Moscow’s spokesman said that the letter from
the 50 thousand was proof of the “great authority” Russia has at the
moment in the Middle East, “particularly among the Christian minorities
living in that area.” Middle Eastern Christians “have known for
centuries that no other country would look after their interests in the
same way Russia would,” said Archpriest Nikolaj Balashov, the number two
man of the Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations. “To
reaffirm the ties between Russia and the Churches in Syria, on 14
October the Moscow Spiritual Academy decided to erect a sculpture
ensemble with a statue of Jesus at its centre, on a mountain in Syria
which is also home to the Marian shrine of Saidnaya. Arab Christian
pilgrims come to this shrine from all over the Middle East. The
sculpture ensemble was intended as a symbol of peace in a country
ravaged by war. This goes hand in hand with the Patriarchate of Moscow’s
active efforts to champion the Middle Eastern Christian cause in the
face of Islamist violence.
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