I've been saying for some time that part of the explanation for Putins' embrace of the church is chess-playing, long-term strategic thinking. He knows, maybe not in his heart, but in his brain and in his guts, that the only way to fight a religion like Islam is to encourage the Christian religion. The lesser of two evils (in his mind). But whatever his motivation are, I'll take it.
or maybe, Putin is finally free to support the church and his faith -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3d_yxJhmjk
[Putins’ embrace of the church is chess-playing,]
The KGB’s historical predecessors were the “church’s” secret police - the Oprichiniki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprichnina
Good reason to prohibit such state-establishments in a free country where the governed have the right and responsibility to contradict the errors of the fallible and uninspired eunuchs who would govern and enslave them.
Note at the bottom of this post. "2007 Russian and other Slavic populations decrease in number while the largely Muslim populations of nationalities indigenous to the North Caucasus grow." It looks like when Ramzan Kadyrov (muslim) took over he is using unethical means by the police to force Russians and Slavic out.
http://demographymatters.blogspot.com/2013/04/some-notes-on-chechens-and-chechen.html
This is nearly exactly the kind of thing that took place in Kosovo by the Muslims. When Milošević attempted to deal with the problem the western world turned against him.
It will be interesting to see how Putin deals with it.
I agree it is a step in the right direction. It will be a long time before the church could recover though and it will take leadership participation more then just support.