“Putin is a saint,” says Father Savvas as he walks out of one of Greece’s most important cathedrals on Mitropoleos Street in downtown Athens. “But [Putin] will only help us if God wants it and the EU abandon us.” The monk, wearing sunglasses and a long white beard, is visiting Athens for a few weeks. Father Savvas has travelled down from Mount Athos, a remote peninsula in northern Greece which has been set as the spiritual capital of Orthodox Christianity for more than 1,000 years.
