For Patriarch Kirill nuclear weapons are necessary for salvation, explains Mark Jenkins
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, is a practising Russian Orthodox believer who often accompanies President Putin on visits to Orthodox monasteries in remote areas across the Russian Federation. At the entrance to Moscow’s Red Square the small Iveron Chapel is said to house a miracle-working icon, the original of which is in the Iveron Monastery on Mount Athos. Whenever the Tsars passed by on their way to the Kremlin, they would stop and venerate the icon; so, too, does Shoigu.
