Once more, the names change but the challenges of history seem to remain the same.

An extensive story in Tuesday’s Washington Post on Russia’s Vladimir Putin brings to mind a famous observation from Winston Churchill.

It was October of 1939. Earlier that summer, the Soviet Union and Germany had signed a non-aggression agreement. It was known as the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact” and provided Stalin with the assurance Nazi Germany wouldn’t invade his country – and by extension, wound up giving Hitler the freedom to invade Poland without concern of Stalin trying to stop him.

Said the British Bulldog of the Soviet Union’s perplexing willingness to agree to such a thing: “It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

President or Prime Minister of Russia since 1999, Vladimir Putin seems to model every bit of that vexing and confounding description.

Once an agent of the KGB and professing to be a devout Russian Orthodox believer and “defender of the faith,” the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) nevertheless has accused Russia of “engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

In the early days of George W. Bush’s presidency, the 43^rd chief executive met Putin in Slovenia. Having been briefed by the CIA, President Bush asked his Russian counterpart: “Is it true your mother gave you a cross you had blessed in Jerusalem?”

“His whole countenance changed,” Bush recalled. Later at a press conference, Bush was asked if he trusted Putin. Recalling their unusually personal interaction, the president replied, “I looked into his eyes, and I saw a soul.”

This past April, in a conversation with David Rubenstein, former President Bush said, “I trusted him. I was really referring to the fact that he had this great kind of emotion about something as significant as the cross. [If] I looked in his eyes at the end of my presidency, I would have seen a different soul. In my judgment, it darkened up [as] he became infected with power and money and you know, perhaps sex.”

Vladimir Putin remains very much in the headlines, his dictatorial power seemingly undiminished as he wages a long and bloody war with Ukraine. Unquestionably tyrannical in his actions and leadership, the Russian leader nevertheless appears to champion other issues many social conservatives in the West care deeply about.

The declining birthrate is of particular concern.

“Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had seven or eight children, and maybe even more,” Putin said last November. “We should preserve and revive these wonderful traditions.”

Then there is the issue of abortion.

Seemingly unconcerned about the killing of preborn children earlier in his tenure, the Russian leader has previously declared, “In the modern world, the decision is up to the woman herself.” Yet recent laws in Russia have been passed restricting access to the abortion pill and making it illegal to coerce a woman to have an abortion.

“The state is interested for the demographic problem to be resolving itself if women took a decision, after finding out about a pregnancy, in favor of safeguarding the life of the child,” Putin has said.

But the Washington Post editorializes:

His policies are being driven not only by economic interests but by his effort to forge a puritanical, militarized society built on nationalism and Orthodox Christianity — locked in a civilizational conflict with the West.

In pursuing these sweeping changes, Putin has cast Russia as the global leader in a fight against what he considers Western debauchery, and has branded democracy advocates and other liberals as purveyors of “destructive ideology” who must be suppressed.

Feminists, LGBTQ+ activists, independent journalists and political opposition figures have been designated as foreign agents, extremists or terrorists and arrested, jailed or forced to flee the country.

The Post suggests Russia’s feminists believe Putin’s “revanchist policies are rolling back women’s rights … and [women are] being told to forgo education and careers to prioritize child-rearing.” As evidence, they cite Russia’s “Heroine Mother” award – a World War II-era distinction that is given to moms who have ten or more children. There’s also the “Order of Parental Glory,” given to moms and dads raising seven or more boys and girls.

There is no shortage of evidence to question the true motives of Vladimir Putin, but discerning and critical-thinking Christians should nevertheless be cautious and careful swallowing the hook of Washington Post writers. Especially when it comes to what is purportedly driving  Putin.

If the Russian leader was truly being driven by his Christianity, the list of Russian war crimes wouldn’t fill reams of paper. Christians wouldn’t be fined for distributing Bible tracts in his country. Nor would Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich have just been sentenced to 16 years in prison after a mysterious and allegedly bogus trial.

There is also insinuation suggesting if the Russian tyrant believes abortion should be illegal, families should be large, and that gender lies and confusion are dangerous – you may want to rethink holding to those same convictions, too.

The enigmatic nature of a tyrannical Vladimir Putin should remind us to read and study cautiously and selectively. Developing and mastering a Christian worldview is critical as a believer, and it’s helpful and practical as an American citizen.

What’s driving Putin is what has driven every dictator since the beginning of time, and what we must confront and confess daily: Sin.

Image from Getty.