http://time.com/4750396/vladimir-putin-orthodox-jehovah-witness-lenin-corpse/?xid=newsletter-brief
The Corpse in the Kremlin's Front Yard Tests the Strength of Putin's Faith
Simon Shuster
April 21, 2017
As that ruling came down, a separate scandal was
unfolding in the Russian parliament over another of the Church’s demands – this
one far more consequential for the Orthodox faith than any competition it might
face from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. A group of lawmakers, including members of
Putin’s party, had proposed a bill calling for the burial of Vladimir Lenin,
the Russian revolutionary and founder of the Soviet Union, whose body has been
on display in Red Square since his death in 1924.
In an astounding victory for the Orthodox Church,
Russia’s highest court ordered the
“liquidation” of the local
branch of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose missionary work the government had
deemed “extremist,” in no small part because it posed a challenge to the
teachings of the Orthodox clergy.
The ties between Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church were tested twice this week – by coincidence, on the same day, April 20 – and with two very different outcomes.
READ MORE: http://time.com/4750396/vladimir-putin-orthodox-jehovah-witness-lenin-corpse/?xid=newsletter-brief