Church of Satan condemns Putin

Although Vladimir Putin is often portrayed by the most extreme of his critics as “the beast” or “antichrist”, it seems as not even real life Satanists are down with his politics. The American Church of Satan founded by Anton LaVey in 1964 in San Francisco and still functioning as a community of adult free thinkers who's beliefs center around personalism, self-indulgence contrary to Christian self-denial, and a simple rule of not letting others to take advantage of you, has recently released an article on their official web page which explains the church’s views on Vladimir Putin and his recent activities. The feedback is not pleasant, to say the least – Church of Satan criticizes Putin for corruption, anti-humanism and overall stupidity (the last one being number one on the list of LaVey’s “satanic sins” and most condemned personal qualities among Satanists). “There’s a reason Europe has always shut the door on Russia,” says the article, “and Peter the Great had to settle for a mere window. Russia’s hyper-corrupt culture and its highly chauvinistic geopolitical policies have made Putin a logical continuation of Russia’s so-called exceptional path, meaning its eternal desire to live by European standards but somehow maintaining the oligarchy as means of power.” “It’s tempting to idolize Putin as a throwback to what Niccolò Machiavelli advocated in The Prince,” the article continues, referring to the 16th century political treatise advocating actions of so-called 'self-made princes' who ascended to power through intrigues and war rather than chance, “and that is exactly how Putin is framed when he is being idolized by Westerners that have read too many Viking sagas and have never lived a day in Russia.” The Church of Satan has a very individualistic approach when it comes to personal politics of the members. As stated by one of the churches high priests H. Gilmore, “one’s politics are up to each individual member,” which simply put means the church has nothing against people of different political views joining and sharing the views of Satanism. Nevertheless, it seems like putinism is not something followers of the Left-Hand Path are OK with. “In Russia, if you keep your head down and drink your vodka, there are no guarantees that you won’t fall foul of the government. It is a bipolar culture, which is fun to look into sometimes, but is too crazy to those of us in the know.” It looks today as if not even the black Magik practitioners are siding with Putin, even though many Westerners still fall victim to his professionally engineered image and surgically sculpted face – the majority, and even those who are in the minority, seem to be awakening to the fact that Putin is neither a great evil, nor a great virtue, but simply a menace to freedom that has to be dealt with.