Putin’s Military Clergy: Organisation, Work Tasks, Purpose, and Propaganda
Year: 2025

A presidential decision in 2009 re-established the military clergy (voennoe dukhovenstvo) in Russia after a 91 year hiatus. In this article, the main purpose is to survey the military clergy as an institution and discuss some of its key characteristics, such as the theological underpinning, the number of military priests, their legal status, recruitment and training, organisation, work tasks, and conditions of employment. A key conclusion is that the military clergy functions as a mouthpiece for