Editing Vladimir Putin (section)

=== Religion ===
[[File:Vladimir Putin in the United States 13-16 November 2001-55.jpg|thumb|Putin and wife Lyudmila in New York at a service for victims of the [[September 11 attacks]], 16 November 2001]]

Putin is [[Russian Orthodox Church|Russian Orthodox]]. His mother was a devout Christian who attended the Russian Orthodox Church; his father was an [[atheist]].<ref name="Colton">{{cite book |author1-link=Timothy Colton |title=Popular Choice and Managed Democracy: the Russian elections of 1999 and 2000 |url=https://archive.org/details/popularchoiceman00colt |url-access=registration |author1=Timothy J. Colton |author2=Michael MacFaul |year=2003 |publisher=The Brookings Institution |location=Washington, DC |isbn=978-0-8157-1535-1 |page={{page needed |date=February 2022}}}}</ref> Although his mother kept no [[icon]]s at home, she attended church regularly, despite government persecution of her faith at that time. His mother secretly baptized him as a baby, and she regularly took him to services.<ref name=sakwa_p3 />

According to Putin, his religious awakening began after a serious car crash involving his wife in 1993, and a life-threatening fire that burned down their [[dacha]] in August 1996.<ref name=Colton /> Shortly before an official visit to Israel, Putin's mother gave him his baptismal cross, telling him to get it blessed. Putin has stated, "I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since".<ref name=sakwa_p3 />

When asked in 2007 whether he believes in God, he replied, "There are things I believe, which should not in my position, at least, be shared with the public at large for everybody's consumption because that would look like [[self-advertising]] or a political [[striptease]]".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071221190115/http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/personoftheyear/article/0,28804,1690753_1690757_1695787-3,00.html Putin Q&A: Full Transcript] ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''. Retrieved 22 March 2008.</ref> Putin's rumoured [[confessor]] is Russian Orthodox bishop [[Tikhon (Shevkunov)|Tikhon Shevkunov]].<ref name="FT">{{#invoke:cite|news|title = Putin and the monk |url = http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/f2fcba3e-65be-11e2-a3db-00144feab49a.html |archive-url = https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/f2fcba3e-65be-11e2-a3db-00144feab49a.html |archive-date = 10 December 2022 |url-access = subscription |work = [[FT Magazine]] |date = 25 January 2013 }}</ref> The sincerity of his Christianity has been rejected by his former advisor [[Sergei Pugachev]].<ref name="veconomist">{{#invoke:cite|news|title = The enduring grip of the men{{snd}}and mindset{{snd}}of the KGB |url = https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2020/04/25/the-enduring-grip-of-the-men-and-mindset-of-the-kgb |newspaper = [[The Economist]] |date = 25 April 2020 }}</ref>