Russia Conducts Nuclear Exercises Amid Orthodox End-Times Talk
[ by Charles Cameron — from nuclear weaponry to apocalyptic theology is quite a stretch — can two ex-KGB officers bridge them? ]
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Under the headline I’ve made the title of this piece, Russia Conducts Nuclear Exercises Amid Orthodox End-Times Talk, ex-NSA Kremlin-watcher John Schindler touches upon yet another intersection of apocalyptic and natsec — not this time Islamic apocalyptic, as with most recently ISIS, nor evangelical apocalyptic, as with John Hagee‘s emphasis on Israel’s end times role and his support of Donald Trump‘s proclaimed intent to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Central to Russia’s apocalyptic thrust here is Patriarch Kirill of Moscow‘s utterance:
One must be blind not to see the approach of the terrible moments of history about which the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian spoke in his Revelation.
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Nuclear weaponry plus apocalyptic theology is an over-potent combination, and one we should be careful to understand both intellectually and emotionally, viscerally. If we can.
More exactly, nuclear weaponry under cover of apocalyptic theology is an over-potent combination, and one we should be careful with.
And yett more exactly, perhaps, post-KGB nuclear weaponry via Putin under cover of post-KGB apocalyptic theology via the Patriarch?
Understanding this sort of shifting, Rorschach-faced reality “both intellectually and emotionally, viscerally” is a task for true genius — or an unbelievably advanced and subtle AI.
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And then there’s Donald Trump — anti-CIA? pro-Putin?
