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Vladimir Putin allegedly met shamans during his recent trips to Siberia and Mongolia to seek their blessing for the use of nuclear weapons, according to Russian opposition figures.
The Russian president is well known for performing religious orthodoxy, casting himself as a defender of Christianity around the world. The former KGB officer is also reportedly extremely superstitious, known for refusing to publicly say the name of the deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He is also said to be interested in paganism, allegedly taking regular baths in an extract from the blood of severed deer antlers in the belief that it has rejuvenating powers.
But this month Putin travelled to Mongolia, his first visit to a member state of the International Criminal Court since it issued a warrant for his arrest last year. En route he stopped in the Tuva region of Siberia, "ostensibly to give a lesson in patriotism to schoolchildren", said The Times. According to Mikhail Zygar, founder of opposition television channel TV Dozhd (which is banned in Russia), Putin's real reason for the "risky trip" was to consult shamans – allegedly to seek their blessing for the use of nuclear weapons.
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There are plenty of reasons these days to wonder if Russian President Vladimir Putin and his cronies are off their rockers. But a recently leaked memo from the Kremlin reveals that those in charge of the Russian government are farther down the rabbit hole than most of us realized.
The memo, published by the Insider, a Russian news outlet in exile, outlines how the Russian Federal Guard Service (FSO), which protects high-ranking officials such as Putin, would handle the invasion of Ukraine — or any other war — spilling over onto the country’s own soil. It focuses on psychological preparedness, ensuring that FSO officers would have the “moral and psychological support” needed to resist what the memo calls a potential “massive ideological attack.” But the Russians aren’t simply worried about the usual wartime propaganda, like sneaky radio broadcasts or underground newspapers. Instead, the Kremlin is mounting preparations for what it calls the “psychological infection of personnel” by an enemy who would manipulate them through hypnosis—as well as through unknown mystical and psychic powers. The memo warns of “psi-generators” and “hypnotic abilities” used by foreign personnel.
Such fears may be enforced at the top. It’s long been rumored that Russian leaders, including Putin, believe in mysticism, astrology, numerology, and psychics—as well as a conviction that their rule over a greater Russia is predestined. As far back as 1988, the New York Times reported that “[h]oroscopes, folk medicine, psychic healing and all manner of mysticism occupy a prominent place in Soviet society, part faith, part fad, but no joke.”
The president is also thought to have been unnerved by Alexander Gabyshev, a wandering shaman who made headlines in 2019 for embarking on a quest to “drive the evil spirit of Putin from the Kremlin”, before later being sentenced to enforced treatment in a Russian psychiatric institution.
“While a Western public may find the shaman’s exorcism quest funny,” The Washington Times reported at the time, “Mr. Putin does not.”