Russia’s Chechen Forces Commander Apti Alaudinov dropped a controversial statement during his appearance on Russian state television earlier this week, calling the invasion of Ukraine “holy war.”

Alaudinov hailed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his valiant effort against the “satanic” west and for fending off Ukraine from further adapting the democratic values. Chechnya is part of the Republic of Russia under the jurisdiction of Moscow.

“This is a holy war our saints and elders spoke of. I praise the Most High (God) that this country is headed by Vladimir Putin because he is the man that refused to accept the so-called European values. In reality, those are Satanist values that are imposed upon the entire world.”

He also praised the Kremlin for his rooted stand against LGBTQ rights and for preventing it from further advancing in the country, saying that Putin is “doing what Islamic countries should have done.”

“We are not under the flags of the LGBT, and as long as he’s (Putin) alive, we won’t be under those flags,” he added.

In his comment, the Chechen commander referred to America as “the main enemy of mankind,” along with Europe and NATO, spreading “everything Satanic,” and asserted that this war was like facing “the antichrist army.”

“All forces and units fighting on the side of Russia is the army of Jesus, Isa Alaihis Salam. We are fighting against these forces that impose upon us everything that is unpleasant and disliked by God. Everything that is unnatural for a man.”

Watch below his full remarks shared on Twitter by Julia Davis, a columnist for The Daily Beast and creator of the Russian media:

‘Anti-gay’ Propaganda

Aside from his religious quest, Putin strongly opposed LGBTQ rights, even signing a law in 2013 that prohibited the promotion of nontraditional sexual relationships among minors, which Western rights groups condemned as “anti-gay.” Moreover, to preserve the nation’s conservative values in 2020, he said he would not legalize gay marriage as long as he was in the Kremlin.

Last year, Putin reportedly lambasted the so-called canceling culture of the West during a speech at the Valdai Discussion Club. Instead, he stressed that Russia should adhere to its own “spiritual values and historical traditions.”

“The aggressive deletion of whole pages of their own history, reverse discrimination against the majority in the interest of minorities …constitute movement toward public renewal. It’s their right, but we are asking them to steer clear of our home. We have a different viewpoint.”

In addition, Putin remarked that teaching a child “that a boy can become a girl and vice versa” should be treated as a crime against humanity.
Romania and Hungary followed behind Russia in establishing a gay propaganda law.

Romanian parliamentarians have supported the bill protecting the nation’s Christian values. Meanwhile, in June, Hungary passed a law banning all materials that promote homosexuality and gender change in schools. However, this bill was legally countered by the European Commission on July 15, calling it an anti-LGBT law.

The ‘Holy’ What Now?

After months of discreetly inching into the Ukrainian borders, Russia launched a full-scale invasion on February 24, claiming Kyiv to assert that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people.”

A well-written Op-Ed piece by Paul Starobin, a former Moscow bureau chief of Business Week, deftly discusses why the invasion of Ukraine is Russia’s declaration of “holy war.”

https://twitter.com/toaderly/status/1548730416537997314

Like the remarks made by Alaudinov, State Duma Deputy Vyacheslav Nikonov has also recently proclaimed on Russian television that this indeed is a “holy war we’re waging, and we must win,” which Starobin says is a “stark declaration” that highlights the “White,” not “Red” mentality in the Kremlin today. Further noting how this line of thinking reels us back “to czarist-era justifications for Russian wars of pre-Soviet times.”

However, these efforts appear to contradict Russia’s objective of restoring Orthodox Christians’ faith and reclaiming Kyiv as the cradle of Muscovy, as the majority of Ukrainians identify as Orthodox, and the war appears to be pitting brothers against each other.

Then again, “in Moscow’s view, the Ukrainians are heretics,” as many of the latter’s citizens left the Moscow Patriarchate. Not to mention Ukraine’s plans to join the West through the European Union and NATO.

So “Little Russia,” as Ukraine was officially known in imperial czarist times, must be repossessed, Starobin concluded.

Starobin noted that each leg of the nuclear triad has a Russian Orthodox patron saint, citing analyst Dmitry Adamsky’s 2019 book “Russian Nuclear Orthodoxy.” Furthermore, nuclear weapons receive holy water blessing ceremonies (including chapels inside nuclear-armed submarines), and military personnel responsible for handling that deadly weaponry.

He wrapped up his piece by stating that Putin is clearly treating this attack as a religious quest and should not be taken lightly since time has proven how a sanctified “holy war tends to be the most savage war of all.”