Putin as a “subject of commercial use”
It is known that the creation of a pseudo-religious movement is a very profitable business, only slightly inferior in profitability to the trade in drugs and pornography, the organization of prostitution and the like. Of course, this industry is being heated up in a certain way. It is known that one of the best ways to promote a new religious movement is to associate it with famous names. So, Rastafarianism was twisted around the names of Bob Marley and the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I, in Kenya there is a pseudo-Catholic sect that declared Bark Obama saints, in Russia they exploit the name of Putin. There is nothing original in this approach.
Meanwhile, it seems to me, attempts to use the brand “Vladimir Putin” clearly record a cardinal shift in the degree of people’s love. To attract believers, the sect of Mother Photinia the Light-bearing in the Nizhny Novgorod region declared Vladimir Putin its saint, and his icon – streaming myrrh. In a word, everyone who could and who had enough intelligence tried to “weld” on the name of Vladimir Putin and his nationwide popularity. The proof of this almost axiom is at least the fact that such stories with enviable regularity became the property of the public.
The founder of the sect is the former occult healer Svetlana Frolova, who declared herself an Orthodox “mother” and founded her own “church” on the basis of occultism disguised as Orthodoxy.
The center of the sect is located in the village of Bolshaya Yelnya near Nizhny Novgorod.
The sect’s teachings are disguised as Russian Orthodoxy. Sectarians worship the Mother of God. The “mother” Photinia herself dresses in the priestly garments and censes before the icons in her church. According to Photinia, the second coming of Christ has already taken place. Now there are seven “Sons of God” and seven “Antichrists” on earth.
The sect gained fame due to the fact that it proclaimed V.V. Putin the reincarnation of the Apostle Paul. At the same time, the anniversary of the second term of the President was celebrated in the sect as a great religious holiday. A portrait of Putin hangs in the church next to the iconostasis. Fotinia says: “Putin, like the Apostle Paul, came into the world to convert as many people as possible to the true faith” (see the Metro newspaper April 12, 2005, p. 2).
Patriarch Alexy II is considered in the sect by Pontius Pilate, his role is to prevent the new crucifixion of Christ.
However, in order to understand the logic of the cult, it is necessary to turn to the history of the “mother” herself and her organization. At first glance, we are talking about crazy Putin fans who yearn for eschatology in the Hollywood style here and now. But, I’m afraid to disappoint, speaking of Mother Fotinier, we are dealing not so much with an abnormal person as with a very enterprising person.
In the nineties, Svetlana Robertovna was the head of a large section of the railway. As part of her activities, she carried out “barter transactions” with foreign entrepreneurs. In fact, she exchanged state property for clothes. She was selling these clothes.
In 1996, the court proved that the damage caused to the state by her “business” totaled several tens of millions of rubles. The future “messiah” had to spend a year and a half in prison.
After leaving the places not so distant, the future mother went to Moscow. From this moment, her activity as a healer begins. Svetlana Fedorovna healed only for money. Moreover, she even had a license “for entrepreneurial activities in healing and cosmoenergy.” By the way, Svetlana Robertovna also has no medical education.
As time went on, my mother wanted more. Simple healing was not enough. So, in fact, her “church” appeared. By the nature of the doctrine, photinism is a typical New Age approaching Russian realities. Mother Fotinha has her own “temple”, made “for Orthodoxy”, where she herself serves. As part of the service, Svetlana Robertovna, for example, throws photographs of those who wish under the “altar iconostasis”. There, according to Svetlana Robertovna, grace descends on these photographs. The iconostasis itself is also interesting, since there are “icons” of Patriarch Alexy II and Vladimir Putin there.
In addition, in the “temple” there is a non-canonical icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Resurrection Russia”. “Water charged by Mother Fotinya” is sold in the temple.
Actually, the attributes of magic, witchcraft, extrasensory perception, jingoistic patriotism and ardent love for the president mixed in this “church” into an unthinkable mess. Svetlana Robertovna took several popular brands in the mass consciousness and completed them into a kind of religious doctrine. And on this doctrine makes money. Basically, these are donations, the sale of “charged water”, payment for “casting out demons” and other rituals that mother conducts with enviable consistency. It should be especially noted that from a legislative point of view, everything looks clean. People donate large sums of money to Svetlana Robertovna without any coercion. Fotinha does not use hypnosis or drugs. Just a gift of persuasion and a commercial streak allow her to receive good dividends. Quite good enough that the self-proclaimed “messiah” has his own home, and she is going to open a second branch of her religious organization in Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhniy Novgorod, in sectarian terms, is generally an amazing place. In addition to the “Church of Mother Fotinya” there is also such a cult as “space communists”, the guru of this sect considers himself to be the embodiment of the Mother of God.
Well, if you take a closer look at Russian realities, it becomes completely sad. Sectarian chaos is going on in the country, and Matushka Fotinya, with her ideas of apostolic-presidential reincarnation, is not yet the most difficult version of religious madness.
