Vladimir Putin’s latest political course as president – from the jailing of Pussy Riot to the law against gay ‘propaganda’ – strikes many as being one defined by the Russian Orthodox Church. But is it really so?

In their remote forest republic 400 miles east of the Moscow, the pagan Mari people are once again being harassed by the authorities. While the administrative lever used today is different — charges of “extremism” — their approach is more than reminiscent of the way their Soviet counterparts dealt with dissent.