Vladimir Putin was raised by a Christian Orthodox mother and an atheist father, according to Religion Facts, but like many boys, he never outgrew wanting to please his mama. He told a Russian journalist in 2000, “In 1993, when I worked on the Leningrad City Council, I went to Israel as part of an official delegation. Mama gave me my baptismal cross to get it blessed at the Lord’s Tomb. I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since,” Religion Facts reported. 

However, as far as religion and government are concerned, he told Time in 2007 that common sense should be the guiding principle of governing, but he thinks that morality is also important saying, “it is not possible today to have morality separated from religious values,” per Religion Facts. When it came to the question of whether he believed in a “Supreme God,” Putin got cagey in the Time interview, saying “There are things I believe, which should not in my position, at least, be shared with the public at large for everybody’s consumption because that would look like self-advertising or a political striptease.”

And as vague as Putin is on his personal beliefs, Russia also has its own spin regarding which religions are acceptable. Per The Washington Post, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam are all cool with the Kremlin, and so is Christianity of course, but not all Christian denominations are OK, it turns out.