Abstract
Russia suffers today from a lack of identity which concerns its geographical as well as its political space. In this context of anomie it uses the religious register to find a new identity. Thus the Orthodox religion appears as the basis of a new collective project but also as a source of new cleavages.
Nevertheless religion suffers from the consequences of the “destructuring” of society. Beside religious identification which involves a strong cultural aspect, denominational vagueness is widespread. The search for identity does not automatically entail the emergence of an “ethnic religion”. Like society itself, religious traditions are being torn apart.