section_path: Personal life/Religion
section_name: Religion
paragraph_text: Religion
  
  Putin is Russian Orthodox. His mother was a devout Christian who attended the Russian Orthodox Church; his father was an atheist. Although his mother kept no icons at home, she attended church regularly, despite government persecution of her faith at that time. His mother secretly baptized him as a baby, and she regularly took him to services.
  
  According to Putin, his religious awakening began after a serious car crash involving his wife in 1993, and a life-threatening fire that burned down their dacha in August 1996. Shortly before an official visit to Israel, Putin's mother gave him his baptismal cross, telling him to get it blessed. Putin has stated, "I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since".
  
  When asked in 2007 whether he believes in God, he replied, "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 ". Putin's rumoured confessor is Russian Orthodox bishop Tikhon Shevkunov. The sincerity of his Christianity has been rejected by his former advisor Sergei Pugachev.