Sent to church

Each official consists of two parts. Or even two people - like a nesting doll. One part is intended for public consumption, she speaks words written in advance (usually not by himself) on a piece of paper, answers any questions with written formulas - like diplomats preserved in their images, for example. Another part of these people is how they behave at home or at work, but not in the beams of projectors. People like Chernomyrdin are rare.

Our National Leader Putin also consists of these two parts. But the second part often shines through the first - like Saturday from under Friday. And sometimes, when there is no text before his eyes, and the questions move away from the boredom of the protocols, he throws off his matryoshka covers and appears as his subordinates see him every day, as he really is, and says not what he should, but what what he really thinks. And about toilets, and about “cut it so that it won’t grow,” and about “doctor.”

In Helsinki, Vladimir Vladimirovich added a wonderful speech to his quotation book. He was asked about the Finnish diplomat who took Anton Salonen in the trunk of his car with his father from Russia to Finland - under diplomatic cover. And in response, Putin said: “We heard that he was guided by considerations of a humanitarian nature. I admit that this is so. But if he neglects his official duties and puts his understanding of humanity above this, then his place is not in the civil service, but in the church. Let him go there and work."

And now you understand what the thing is. In private, I may even agree with Putin. The diplomat was not really minding his own business. In an unclear legal situation, he made a sharp decision, considering himself, perhaps, Schindler, perhaps some other hero. And my fellow countrymen thought so too. But Finns, like us, are biased. I just think that you should carry a person in the trunk, saving his life from a mortal threat, but not from his mother.

But Putin’s words contain not only and not so much this meaning! Official duties and humanism are two poles! That's the thing. And abstract duty is higher than abstract humanism. Instructions are more important than conscience! Putin has a conflict between them. And the word “humanitarian” sounds as disgusting to him as the word “intellectual” used to sound to others.

If you have “principles”, you have no place in the service. Don't argue, just do it! But what kind of public service is this, that humanitarian principles must be sacrificed in it? There is no place for philanthropy either in the army, or even in the police, or even in the diplomatic field.

It’s been a long time since Vladimir Vladimirovich showed his face so clearly. But I, however, noticed one more nuance - very unexpected. Putin, and after him, the entire nomenklatura in our country is now obligatory God-fearing. With candles in churches they make the sign of the cross and venerate the relics. In the well-known triad, current Orthodoxy is by no means on the margins. And so Putin, in an aggressive manner, actually characterizes the church as an abode of weaklings, worthless in the present case, unfit to serve the fatherland. There is no use for you - go to church, “work” there. Putin separates church from state! In everyday terms, this is exactly the point. And I think that the Leader needs all Orthodoxy as a respectable cover, like another shell of a nesting doll. And the entire Church as an institution for him is only a tool, a department for relations with God, needed not for spiritual guidance, not for protecting and helping the suffering, but for “patriotic education.” And in general: “sending” to church is powerful!