Putins’ Road to Church

Lyudmila Putin turned to God after a car accident in 1993

The strength of man can be seen from the strength of his faith. Will that strength be destructive or creative? This depends on what man believes in, whether it is great or mean.

Vladimir Putin told a touchy story during his interview to American TV host Larry King. The story was about a little cross that was found on the ashes of Putin’s house. Putin said that the cross was given to him by his mother. It was not damaged by the fire at all, which was rather surprising. Vladimir Putin said that he has always been wearing that cross since that time. Before he found the cross, he saved his two children from the burning house. The people, who are close to the president’s family still remember that incident, attaching symbolic significance to it. The Putins can be seen in churches rather often now. The road to  Church started for the Putins family as follows.

A car accident took place in the city of Kaliningrad in 1993. One of the people injured was a woman named Lyudmila Putin. She came to Kaliningrad from St.Petersburg to visit her mother. Her husband, Vladimir Putin, was employed for the position of the deputy mayor of St.Petersburg. The woman was taken to St.Petersburg immediately. Neurosurgeon General of the Russian Armed Forces Yevgeny Parfyonov operated Lyudmila Putin twice during one night. Her life was saved. However, no operation could save Lyudmila Putin from dark thoughts. She was waiting for the time to become a disabled person, she had a nervous breakdown and a depression. Lyudmila Putin turned to God. Vladimir Putin loves his wife. He tries to make her world kind and beautiful.

Lyudmila visited the Snetogorsky Convent and the Pskov-Pechorsky Monastery on September 29th, which was her name day. The Pskov-Pechorsky Monastery is a usual object to visit for state officials and their families, so Lyudmila Putin’s visit there did not have any special significance. Yet, she came to the Snetogorsky Convent to visit her spiritual mother, mother Lyudmila. This unexpected pilgrimage brought up a lot of questions, since it was all about secrecy. When Lyudmila Putin traveled to the Pskov Monastery, everything was arranged in a way in order not to let anyone know that it was the president’s wife going there. Lyudmila wanted to be inconspicuous against the background of numerous tourists and pilgrims.  The Federal Security Service department in the Pskov region was not informed about that visit at all. Lyudmila Putin traveled in Mercedes Gelendewagen vehicles that carried St.Petersburg numbers. They say that those jeeps are the only vehicles that she can use now after the car accident in 1993. However, she is ready to get into any other car, if there is a strong need for that.

Vladimir Putin’s spiritual father is Achimandrite Tikhon

Archimandrite Tikhon (his secular name is Georgy Shevkunov)  was born in 1958, graduated from the stage performance department of the Cinema University. Then he took a great interest in religion and became a brother of the Pskov-Pechorsky monastery. Soon after that he worked at the publishing department of the Moscow Patriarchy. At present moment he is the deputy of the Moscow Sretensky Convent, which is considered to be the ideological center of the Russian Orthodox Church. He is also a member of the editorial board of Russky Dom magazine (Russian House), as well as one of the spiritual leaders of the television program that carries the same name. By the way, resigned KGB General Nikolay Leonov is a member of the editorial board of the program. This man used to serve in a KGB department, in which Vladimir Putin served too. Probably, this is the link to explain the connection between Vladimir Putin and Archimandrite Tikhon. The president does not confirm that Father Tikhon is his spiritual father. Neither does Father Tikhon. Even if it is true, such relations are never supposed to get into the public eye.

PRAVDA.Ru
Based on the materials of various websites

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov