Iben Thranholm — Putin's Christian Vision

Monasteries and churches formerly inside the Kremlin walls and destroyed by the Bolsheviks, are being rebuilt. Governors instructed to read Christian philosophers of the 19th-20th century.…

The Kremlin is both the political and historic center not just of Moscow but of Russia. By calling for the restoration of these Christian buildings Putin repudiates the Soviet legacy with its atheist ideology and its record of anti-Christianity and reaffirms Orthodoxy as the heart of Russian culture. In his own words

"Here is the idea ... to restore the historic appearance of the place with two monasteries and a church, but giving them, considering today's realities, an exclusively cultural character."

A key element of Putin’s world view is not just his commitment to the Russian Orthodox Church as an institution, but also his admiration for three 19th and 20th century Russian Christian philosophers—Nikolai Berdyaev, Vladimir Solovyov and Ivan Ilyin, all of whom he often quotes in his speeches. Russia’s regional governors were even instructed to read the works of these philosophers during their 2014 winter holidays.

The social and political importance of this about-facecannot be overestimated. It is a sea change that cements Putin as one of the historically great Russian leaders.

Vladimir Solovyov is the most significant of the three philosophers that have gained Putin's sponsorship. From Wikipedia:

Sophiolology

Solovyov compiled a philosophy based on Hellenistic philosophy (see Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus) and early Christian tradition with Buddhismand Hebrew Kabbalistic elements (Philo of Alexandria). He also studied Gnosticism and the works of Valentinus.[11] His religious philosophy was syncretic, and fused philosophical elements of various religious traditions with Orthodox Christianity and his own experience of Sophia.
Solovyov described his encounters with the entity Sophia in his works, Three Encounters and Lectures on Godmanhood among others. Solovyov's fusion was driven by the desire to reconcile and or unite with Orthodox Christianity these various traditions via the Russian Slavophiles' concept of sobornost. His Russian religious philosophy had a very strong impact on the Russian Symbolist art movements of his time.[12] Solovyov's teachings on Sophia, conceived as the merciful unifying feminine wisdom of God comparable to the Hebrew Shekinah or various goddess traditions,[13] have been deemed a heresy by ROCOR and as unsound and unorthodox by the Patriarchate of Moscow.[14] 

Sobornost 

Solovyov sought to create a philosophy that could through his system of logic or reason reconcile allbodies of knowledge or disciplines of thought, and fuse all conflicting concepts into a single system. The central component of this complete philosophic reconciliation was the Russian Slavophile concept of sobornost (organic or Spontaneous order through integration; which is related to the Russian word for 'catholic'). Solovyov sought to find and validate common ground – or where conflicts found common ground – and by focusing on this common ground to establish absolute unity and or integral[15] fusion of opposing ideas and / or peoples.[16]

Quotes 

"As long as the dark foundation of our nature, grim in its all-encompassing egoism, mad in its drive to make that egoism into reality, to devour everything and to define everything by itself, as long as that foundation is visible, as long as this truly original sin exists within us, we have no business here and there is no logical answer to our existence. Imagine a group of people who are all blind, deaf and slightly demented and suddenly someone in the crowd asks, "What are we to do?"... The only possible answer is "Look for a cure". Until you are cured, there is nothing you can do. And since you don't believe you are sick, there can be no cure."
"But if the faith communicated by the Church to Christian humanity is a living faith, and if the grace of the sacraments is an effectual grace, the resultant union of the divine and the human cannot be limited to the special domain of religion, but must extend to all Man's common relationships and must regenerate and transform his social and political life."[17] 

Nikolai Berdyaev is also a notable Russian philosopher. Berdyaev and Solovyov are often mentioned together and are much more significant than Ilyin.

From Wikipedia:

Berdyaev's philosophy has been characterized as Christian existentialist. He was preoccupied with creativity and in particular with freedom from anything that inhibited creativity, whence his opposition to a "collectivized and mechanized society".
According to Marko Markovic, "He was an ardent man, rebellious to all authority, an independent and "negative" spirit. He could assert himself only in negation and could not hear any assertion without immediately negating it, to such an extent that he would even be able to contradict himself and to attack people who shared his own prior opinions."[2]

********

He was a practising member of the Russian Orthodox Church, but was often critical of the institutional church. He was a Christian universalist,[5][6] and he believed that Orthodox Christianity was the true vehicle for that teaching.

The greater part of Eastern teachers of the Church, from Clement of Alexandria to Maximus the Confessor, were supporters ofApokatastasis, of universal salvation and resurrection. ... Orthodox thought has never been suppressed by the idea of Divine justice and it never forgot the idea of Divine love. Chiefly — it did not define man from the point of view of Divine justice but from the idea of transfiguration and Deification of man and cosmos.[7]

Russian Premier Vladimir Putin has instructed his regional governors to read Berdyaev's 'The Philosophy of Inequality'.[8]

In comparison with Solovyov and Berdyaev, Ivan Ilyin is considered a relatively minor philosopher, but he is still important in Russia as Russian philosopher and shaper of thought. He was a Russian nationalist and traditionalist. Hopefully, Putin will emphasize Solovyov  and Berdyaev rather than Ilyin. But Ilyin's analysis of Russia under Marxism-Leninism is revealing if this is Putin's view also.

Studying the causes of the twentieth century Russian tragedy, Ilyin wrote, “The Russian revolution is a reflection of the religious crisis we are living through now, an attempt to establish an anti-Christian public and state system thought up by Friedrich Nietzsche, and economically and politically realised by Karl Marx. The West exported this anti-Christian virus to Russia… Losing our bond with God and the Christian tradition, mankind has become morally blind, and gripped by materialism, irrationalism, and nihilism”. To overcome the global moral crisis people need to return to eternal moral values, that is faith, love, freedom, conscience, family, motherland, and nation, above all faith and love, Ilyin wrote. He trusted that “to make Russia great again, the Russian people should believe in God, and that this faith will strengthen their willpower and their mind, and will make them strong enough to overcome themselves”. Ilyin believed in the religious gift and talent of the Russian soul. He prophesied, “Russian history is all about morality triumphing over difficulties, temptation, danger, and enemies. That’s how it was, and that’s how it’s always going to be, even better…” — Ivan Ilyin: An Exceptional Twentieth Century Religious Philosopher

Putin is a frequent visitor to the isolated Valaam Monastery, where he apparently visits his spiritual mentor. Therefore, it is doubtful that this change of direction is not also accompanied by a change of heart. However, it is also politically astute.

It also explains a lot about his so-called anti-democratic behavior in enforcing traditional values rather than "freedom" when that freedom goes against traditional values. In this Putin is closely aligned with the American religious right on the drawing the line between freedom and license.

Russia Insider
Putin's Christian Vision
Iben Thranholm