Geraldine Fagan presented her new book, “Believing in Russia—Religious Policy after Communism”, which brings together 12 years of research inside Russia on the role of religion in the nation’s politics. She discussed the pursuit of privilege for the Orthodox Church and other so-called “traditional” faiths—Islam, Judaism and Buddhism—under Presidents Putin and Medvedev, as well as the rapidly changing role of religion in Russian national identity. She also argued that government policy grounded in religious freedom is the only viable option for consolidating Russia’s extraordinary diversity, and reveal that—far from being a Western import—religious freedom has a long tradition in Russia.