Leave your religion at the door, please

Dmitry Medvedev and Svetlana Medvedeva with Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila Putina during Easter Vigil at Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Easter 2011

Here's a mighty fine picture, taken over the weekend. The irony is, of course that for a large part of my life no Russian or Eastern European leader would allow him or herself to be in anyway associated with the Church.

Now they all do. Here is an article from Serbia lamenting: They go to church only when cameras are there. The English is poor but the cynicism of the writer comes through. Politicians are the same the world over - no, when a photo opportunity presents.....

But what else it shows is the Church is an institution that still has a place in public discourse. In places where it was suppressed for many years it is now important to show your support, unlike here, where it is almost completely marginalized. Whether that is a good thing or not is in the eyes of the beholder I suppose.