To understand Russia one must understand the Russian people. And to understand the Russian people one must understand the Russian church, as well as its relationship to the Russian state. Since 2009 the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church is Kirill, who was born in 1946 as Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is the Russian president since 2012. He served as president from 2000 to 2008, as well. Born in 1952, he is close to Kirill. Their geopolitical objectives are very well matched. Both of them see Moscow as Third Rome. First Rome fell to the Germans and Christianity eventually degenerated into a confusion of Catholicism and Protestantism. Second Rome was Byzantium, where Christian Orthodoxy was born. Christendom needs a new seat ever since Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453. Moscow now unifies all true Christians in the face of the moral decay of the so-called west. The Russians are united behind this goal, and Putin and Kirill are at their helm. In their minds, Third Rome will eventually unite all Christians. And so on, and so forth. In other words, trying to understand Russia by understanding Putin alone will never do. Important though he is, he is only a part of a much larger jigsaw puzzle.