Between 2005 and 2010, a set of books called “Project Russia” was distributed to high-ranking officials in the Russian government and other influential thought leaders. The books offered a detailed program of spiritual warfare against Western democracies culminating in “controlled global collapse” and the establishment of a “supranational” state headed by a Prince-Monk who “best understands the world.” The plan described is ultimately a program for subjugating the world, which would also be united together in a single religion.

This all may sound fantastical, or even absurd. But the Project Russia plan comports very closely with what’s unfolding now, and has been linked to groups acting on behalf of the FSB, Russia’s security agency. It’s worth considering the ways in which this plan also reflects the inflection point we now face in the United States.

Brief overview about the relationship between post Soviet Russia and the Heritage Foundation can be found in this post if you’re interested

    • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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      1 month ago

      Another way to describe it might be as a “monarchy” at a global scale, where Putin is effectively “King of the World.”

      This vision of Putin as the “Prince-Monk” is, of course, aspirational. Russia is weak in many ways, and needs to square its global ambitions with geopolitical facts. Xi Jinping is backing Russia’s efforts to the hilt, at least as long as he believes China can benefit from this global reordering. Elon Musk appears to be Putin’s point person in the United States, and is doing everything he can to accelerate destabilization. We can envision the resulting autocracy as one led by Putin, Xi, Musk, and a handful of their trusted henchmen.

      I don’t think it’s all that far fetched except, at the time this was written most people didn’t realize Musk was simply standing in as a place holder for Peter Thiel’s protege to receive Senate confirmation as Trump’s science advisor

      Putin has actually been referenced under a pseudonym in other published works too. If you think the Project Russia pseudonym is wild, you should read this article from the Atlantic about Putin’s favorite fictional book, which clearly references him as the hero of the story, but somehow preemptively predicted Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

      Putin Is Just Following the Manual

      Mikhail Yuriev’s 2006 utopian novel, The Third Empire: Russia as It Ought to Be, anticipates—with astonishing precision—Russia’s strategy of hybrid war and its recent military campaigns: the 2008 war with Georgia, the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the incursion into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions the same year, and Russia’s current assault on Ukraine.

      What’s an even crazier coincidence, is that the author of that book is also part of a group of Oligarchs who donated to Mike Johnson’s campaign in 2018. While American Ethane was co-founded by American John Houghtaling, at the time it was 88 percent owned by three Russian nationals—Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev. Nikolaev is known to be a top ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

      It would be cool if somebody could interview that guy, but unfortunately, nobody can because of the same reason most Oligarchs can’t answer any questions about weird coincidences they’re linked to.

      • HubertManne@piefed.social
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        1 month ago

        Still its nuts. I mean if you think about it what it basically saying is a world order akin to the europe under the roman catholic church. So you have a series of monarchs who all owe a kind of social fidelity to a religious figure who guides the monarchs. It would never work in a million years and certainly putin could not be the figure. My guess is he wants to just be monarch of russia and somehow he gets a eastern orthodox leader or something but between christianity, islam, hinduism your never going to get a single figure much less if you add buddhism, judeism, siekhism and lets not forget that atheism/agnosticism/secularism is pretty large group at this point.

        • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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          1 month ago

          I mean it’s definitely nuts, but when you think about why it exists, most likely it’s just a propaganda tool that lays out a proposed future guided by traditionalism and religious nationalism as a patriotic duty.

          Basically, if you buy in, this is the greatness that awaits you as a reward. Whether or not they intend to fully carry out any of that beyond whatever is necessary to gain and protect the power/wealth of the people that put the movement together, is unclear.

          As long as they claim these are the overarching goals, it’s a pretty effective tool. If you join us, this is what you’ll be working towards as a loyal servant to your God and a patriot for your country.

          Project 2025 isn’t quite as heavy on the globalist Orthodox aspect, but it also doesn’t seem that Christianity in the U.S. has really become homogenous enough (yet) to make that an effective propaganda tool.

          Over the last few decades, you have had an increasing number of conservatives converting to Catholicism, and it’s definitely being used to gain a broader following by people like J.D. Vance via exploitation of Charlie Kirk’s audience.

          Capturing the support of the Catholic right for this kind of thing seems pretty easy, and if you can create a popular movement targeted at Christians in the U.S. using Orthodox religion as an umbrella for all Christians, it could work. It’s insane and it’s scary, but that’s usually the case with most fascist propaganda.

          Orthodox Church Pews Are Overflowing With Converts

          Echoing some of the rhetoric of the so-called manosphere, new waves of young converts say Orthodoxy offers them hard truths and affirms their masculinity.

          My question is, if Russian nationalists are supposed to believe they’re the supreme nation, and Americans are supposed to believe they’re the supreme nation, how do you decide who rules who? Maybe just hope that the umbrella bringing all Orthodox Christianity together will allow you all (but nobody else) to peacefully co-exist under your global oligarch rulers?

          • HubertManne@piefed.social
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            1 month ago

            Well if you look at europe again you have all these countries were the peasants and the middle class were raised to be nationalistic and hate the enemy country but then all the royalty were related.

            • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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              1 month ago

              It’s pretty similar. Oligarchs are the unquestionable and untouchable royalty. Everyone else can be a patriot who does the royalty’s bidding via their own exploitation or fighting in wars that keep the Oligarchs wealthy and in control of all the resources.

              If anyone questions the ruling oligarchs, they’re not just going against the king/queen or even an elected president. Since Orthodox religion is a core part of the nationalist identity under their rule, anyone going against the rulers would be questioning God’s will. These are the leaders that God chose to represent him on earth, and if you try to go against them, you go against God and his entire nation.

              Combining religion and patriotism as a shared national identity, provides a much stronger defense shield against criticism than either alone. If somebody questions the oligarchs who control the government, they’re attacking your country and persecuting your religion.