What is really new in the relationship between church and state in post-Soviet Russia — and thus deserves special attention — is the peculiar fusion of the Church with the security structures of the state (the so-called siloviki), and especially with the nuclear branch of the military, a phenomenon that my colleague Dima Adamsky has appropriately called “nuclear Orthodoxy.” This new church/military nexus has given rise not only to the orthodoxification of the military sphere (the restoration of the chaplaincy, the creation of “church commissars” in the armed forces), but also the (re)militarization of the Orthodox sphere in Russia. On that point, the Church has promoted specific “martial” strategies of scriptural exegesis to justify military aggression, and has reintroduced sacramental military rituals, such as blessing of the troops and their weapons, including nuclear weapons for mass destruction.