Throughout the past years, the Orthodox world has seen numerous political and theological confrontations. This only increased in light of the Russian war on Ukraine, which is rooted in the already strained relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and its Ukrainian (counter)part. The confrontations are born out of a complex entanglement of church politics, theological differences, legal tensions, national allegiances, and the very concrete political and militarily clashes between nation states. In this panel, we invite papers that shed light on these entanglements and their political consequences. The panel is not limited to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but also open to papers focusing on other nations, churches, and aspects (theological, theoretical, geopolitical, empirical etc.).Session 1Chair: Sebastian Rimestad (Universität Leipzig)Speakers:Emil Bjørn Saggau (Lund University), Not our holy shrines – Russian and Serbian entanglement in Montenegrin politicsHeta Hurskainen (University of Helsinki), The Orthodox Church of Finland’s theological arguments concerning the Russian war in UkraineRobert Collins (Birkbeck, University of London), The Russian Church in the culture wars: a conflict of historiographiesSebastian Rimestad (Universität Leipzig), Ecumenical power politics – The Orthodox rift over EcumenismSession 2Chair: Emil Bjørn Saggau (Lund University)Speakers:Susana Torres Prieto (International University in Spain), Second Jerusalem as political ideology in pre-modern Russia Vyacheslav Karpov (Western Michigan University), Pointing away from Christ: Russian Orthodoxy at War against Ukraine Cyril Hovorun (Sankt Ignatios College), Orthodox Political Theology: an OutlineGeorge Tserodze (Tbilisi State University), The Common Faith – A grenade exploding in your hand