NEW YORK – When the Soviet Union collapsed and global communism retreated, many hoped that the days of authoritarian leaders cultivating “cults of personality” were over. We had reached the “end of history,” and liberal democracy won. Regular, peaceful transitions of power among democratically elected officials would be the norm, and no one would dare claim to be infallible, let alone divine.

In the USSR, communism could be the only “religion.” And if communism was godless, its opponents concluded, the antidote must be Christianity. Russia’s first post-Soviet president, Boris Yeltsin, communicated his democratic spirit partly by declaring himself a Christian. With that, God, not Lenin, became the measure of post-Soviet leaders’ non-dictatorial aspirations.

But Russia’s current president, Vladimir Putin, has turned this approach on its head, taking post-Soviet piousness to an evangelical level to serve his dictatorial aims. During a 2002 visit to the United States, Putin’s zealous talk about crosses and miracles convinced President George W. Bush – a born-again Christian – that the former KGB lieutenant colonel had “heart and soul.”

The problem with overtly religious leaders is that they often seek to imbue temporal decisions with the absolutism of their faith. This is a risk even in a democracy: when Bush met with Putin, he was waging a kind of crusade in Afghanistan, and he had labeled Iran, Iraq, and North Korea the “axis of evil” – a call to arms disguised as a jeremiad. But as Bush’s wars multiplied and dragged on, his ability to summon the faithful waned, and new elections brought the hope of better, less dogmatic leadership.

Putin’s Russia is not that fortunate. Unlike Bush, Putin has the power to enforce his zealotry however he sees fit, and Russia’s Kremlin-organized elections are little more than a worship ritual.

Glory to Ukraine!