Russian President Vladimir Putin sent greetings to Orthodox believers on the Russian Christmas Day on Monday, as in the United States presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton claimed Putin had no soul.
“This festival has for centuries brought the light of faith, hope and love,” Putin said in the Christmas message released by the Kremlin on the Orthodox Christmas day, January 7. “It draws us towards primordial spiritual values uniting millions of people, values that play a special role in the history of Russia and nourish our national culture,” Putin said. Putin has committed himself to the Orthodox faith despite his background in the KGB security service in the Soviet era, when Christianity was suppressed. Dressed entirely in black, the Russian leader joined Christmas ceremonies overnight at a church in the snow-covered northern town of Veliky Ustyug, where the temperature was about minus 17 degrees Celsius (one degree Fahrenheit).
But as Russians and branches of the Orthodox faith in other countries celebrated Christmas, in the United States presidential candidate and former first lady Clinton made a cutting assessment of PutinÂ’s spirituality while campaigning in the state of New Hampshire. Her remark that Putin had no soul came as she savaged President George W. Bush for his tactic of trying to forge warm personal bonds with foreign leaders. |