Open letter to Putin: Make peace with your brothers

Under your leadership, Russia stays on the threshold of a deadly war with your brother country of Ukraine.

The Russian people consider themselves to be Christians. So do a lot of their political leaders. That simply means believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, complying with the Holy Gospel (as it is given to us by the disciples of the Master) and honouring the Ten Commandments given to Moses).

Lived in peace

The Ukrainian and Russian people were converted to Christianity from various old and violent religions more than 1,000 years ago. The Ukrainian and Russian Churches were united under the Greek Orthodox Church before the Ukrainian and Russian Church broke off to build its own Orthodox denomination with headquarter and Archbishop (metropolitan) located in Kyiv.

Later on, the Russian Church broke off from Kyiv and formed its own Russian Orthodox Church. Through the centuries, the Ukrainian and Russian peoples have lived in peace and brotherhood and developed a remarkable shared history: “The Slava culture & history” based on the doctrines of the Orthodox Church.

Violating common history

Mr President, do you really intend to now violate your shared, thousand-year-old history by invading Ukraine and using military violence to cause death and suffering to thousands of innocent people, including women and children? How do you think this action will bring blessing and happiness to the Ukrainian or the Russian people?

If you are personally a Christian believer, Mr President, how can you imagine one day standing before God’s Holy Throne in heaven with the blood of all these innocent Ukrainians and Russians on your hands, expecting to be covered by God’s grace and receive eternal life?

Gone through two world wars

This part of the world –where people claim to have Christianity as their fundamental religion– went through two disastrous world wars in just one century.

What kind of testimony does that give about Christianity to the rest of the world? Does it lift Christianity and the Orthodox Church above any other religion of the world? What did Europe and Russia gain from these wars? Are you prepared and motivated to start one more great war among your nearest Christian brothers and sisters in Ukraine?

Do you defend yourself and your intentions to invade Ukraine by “fear of Western Europe and NATO”? You are the president of the biggest country on the face of the earth, and you have greater military forces than needed to destroy this whole world. How can you feel threatened by the European peoples or even the USA?

Mr Putin, you have nothing to fear. Let me remind you of the great saying by President Ronald Reagan in Berlin: “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” And the wall came tumbling down, not only in Berlin but throughout all of the European continent between East and West.

Stop this warfare

The great challenge to you at this very time from God in heaven, His Son Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit, amplified by the Christian Saints who have built Christianity in Ukraine and Russia through the ages, is this: “Mr Putin, stop this warfare and keep peace with your brothers and sisters in Ukraine and Europe”! What force and violence will never create between people or nations, lasting peace and consensus can grow only in the soil of mutual faith, hope and love.

Your own Russian people, as well as the people of Ukraine and the rest of Europe and the world, will praise you for your wisdom as Salomon’s, the son of King David, and show respect to you. Through history, your name will be remembered with honour and great Slava! Now, it’s time for that. This great opportunity will not return.

In Christian faith, hope & love,

Kjell Samuelson

Kjell Samuelson (1942) is Swedish and was part of the gospel music group The Samuelsons.