Russian President Vladimir Putin held an enormous anti-Nazi rally in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on Friday to commemorate the eighth anniversary of Crimea’s democratic reunification with its historical homeland. During his speech, the leader of this Eurasian Great Power shared some significant messages that also importantly touched on religious symbolism. The purpose of this piece is to draw the foreign audience’s attention to them in case their countries censored coverage of this major event.

President Putin began by citing the opening words of the Russian Constitution praising this civilization-state’s multiethnic composition and its people’s common fate through their shared land. This should be interpreted as contrasting Russia’s multiculturalism with post-coup Ukraine’s ethno–fascism, which in turn adds a crucial ideological dimension to Moscow’s ongoing special military operation in that former Soviet Republic.

He then proceeded to explain all of the benefits that Crimea and Sevastopol’s people obtained by reunifying with their homeland, which includes safety from Kiev’s ethno-fascist genocide that was subsequently launched against the newly recognized Donbass Republics as well as irreplaceable improvements to their decrepit infrastructure. It was after describing all of this that the Russian leader then evoked some very emotional religious symbolism.

President Putin cited the Holy Scripture by saying reminding everyone that “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”, which he rightly said is how the Russian Armed Forces are conducting themselves throughout the course of their special operation in Ukraine. He then said that “the bottom line is that this is a universal value for all nations and those of all religions in Russia, and primarily for our people.”

That particular part of his speech alluded to Russia’s conservative principles that unite its cosmopolitan people. Unlike in the US-led West where the public profession of one’s religious beliefs and related displays thereof are nowadays taboo (unless in some cases they’re a religious minority and in particular a self-proclaimed “refugee” even if they’re truly just an economic migrant), Russia won’t ever suppress its citizens’ fundamental human right to proudly espouse their religious views in society.

Leading by example, President Putin’s citation of the Holy Scripture is intended to encourage his people to be proud of their religious beliefs, whatever they may be. Readers should remember that the country’s four historical religions as enshrined in its constitution are Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism, all of which are treasured by the Russian leader as inextricable parts of his civilization-state’s millennium-long heritage.

The second and final religious reference was when President Putin concluded by remarking that “It so happened that, by sheer coincidence, the start of the operation was same day as the birthday of one of our outstanding military leaders who was canonised – Fedor Ushakov. He did not lose a single battle throughout his brilliant career.” Ushakov, as the Russian leader noted, is officially a saint in Orthodox Christianity so this is yet another very symbolic socio-cultural rallying cry for the Russian people.

President Putin wasn’t wrong when earlier declaring during his speech that “It has been a long time since we had such unity” since officials estimate that around 200,000 Russians showed up for his anti-Nazi rally. By comparison, US President Joe Biden and other officials from the incumbent American administration can barely muster even a fraction of that whenever they interact with the public. This undeniable fact contradicts the false infowar claims that the Russian leader is an “unpopular dictator”.

In reality, the latest polling out of Russia indicates that almost 80% of the people have confidence in President Putin, which is self-evident by how many turned out for Friday’s rally. They’re fully informed of the reason why their leader commenced their country’s special operation in Ukraine, which was to avert the Third World War that would have inevitably been fought on Russia’s territory had that neighboring country obtained Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) with its US patron’s full assistance.

The American public, meanwhile, has been mislead by their leadership into wrongly considering their government’s support for their ethno-fascist proxies in Kiev to be connected to “democracy” even though that country is indisputably an authoritarian state after prosecuting its top opposition leaders, banning opposition media, and infringing on the rights of its historically indigenous minorities. Despite being a self-professed “democracy”, US society also resembles an authoritarian state nowadays too.

Its citizens’ constitutionally enshrined “freedom of speech” is actively suppressed whenever any of them dare to express views that contradict their government’s claims about Russia, among countless other examples of their civil rights being violated, not to mention those of its minorities that everyone should already be well aware of. As surprising as it might sound to many Americans, Russia is much more of a genuine democracy – albeit a non-Western one – than their own country is.

President Putin’s enormous anti-Nazi rally proves this beyond a doubt since his American counterpart couldn’t ever dream to have such widespread grassroots support despite scandalously claiming to have won over 80 million votes during the last highly disputed election. Biden can desperately smear the Russian leader all he wants as a so-called “murderous dictator” and a “pure thug”, but all objective observers know that President Putin is sincerely beloved by his people and immensely popular.