In the absence of any positively unifying stories toward a Belarusian identity, and suffering under Europe’s only dictatorship, Belarus is embracing the Orthodox hierarchy.

Writing in Arche, Rashed Chowdury, who identifies himself as a Muslim, says embracing Christianity might be good for Belarus, but only at the level of popular conviction; not at the level of state-sponsorship.

Furthermore, the foundations of fascism are present when the church cynically aligns itself with the state, and, more significantly, when youth movements insist on an alignment of the culture with the faith:

President Alaksandr Lukashenka has been widening the role of the Orthodox Church in society, while the Church, in its turn, has been legitimising the regime, at times quite cynically. Belarusian TV news recently showed a spokesman for the Belarusian Orthodox Church, who, with an empty expression in his eyes, said that Belarus has the best legal structure in Europe. At the same time, one of the pro-opposition Belarusian youth organisations active in the United States, whose website is linked to by the sites of several independent Belarusian organisations and publications, as well as those of opposition parties, claims that every nation has its religion, that the religion of the Belarusians is Christianity, and that it is impossible to be a good Belarusian without being a Christian.