ARTICLE: "At Expense of All Others, Putin Picks a Church," by Clifford J. Levy, New York Times, 24 April 2008, p. A1.

The siloviki ("power guys") know only one thing: how to crush opposition. Getting power, they don't know much about wielding it, but getting it is all they're about, along with turning Russia into a business masquerading as a government.

Company town needs a company church.

Stupid and pointless effort to homogenize religion.

Putin really isn't smart, just paranoid. He wields power very unimpressively, dominating things he has now requirement to control.

As one Russian reader commenting on the story put it best, this is mostly about the Russian Orthodox Church, a weak-ass institution if ever there was one, seeking religious protectionism: "The Russian Orthodox Church chose a simple and efficient method of building up its might—instead of going to the people, it went to the authorities."

Religious protectionism gets you an uncompetitive, non-service-friendly religion. Over time, that becomes a drag on all sorts of needed social upgrades and improvements in efficiency.