The Christmas Truce that was not to be

Four days ago, on January 4, Putin announced a Christmas Truce in the Ukrainian conflict. Orthodox Christmas is held on January 7th, according to the Julian calendar, in effect since the year 45BC rather than the more commonly used and the more astronomically accurate the Gregorian calendar introduced 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. The slippage between them is now 13 days, but it is in the nature of Orthodoxy to not change no matter what, especially what the Pope says. Putin made the decision to announce the truth based on a request by Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox church. Most Russians thought that this was a dumb idea, thinking that this would just give the Ukrainians an opportunity to regroup and resupply. The question is, was it really dumb, or was it actually quite clever? Let’s take a closer look…