Patriarch Kirill of Moscow expressed his regret over ‘attempts to politicize the concept of the Russian world’, patriarchia.ru reports.
“Unfortunately, our opponents use the expression ‘Russian world’ as a kind of bogey, alleging that it is a certain doctrine which purely serves the interests of the foreign policy of the Russian Federation,” said his Holiness. “However, nothing could be further from the truth than identifying the ‘Russian world’ exclusively with the Russian Federation.
The Russian world is both the Ukrainian and the Belarusian world. This is the world of all Russia. This is the world that was created through baptism in the river, it is the world of Prince Vladimir, a system of values that has penetrated into the culture, into the life of our people.”
“Open ‘The Tale of Bygone Years’, at the beginning of this work there are the words ‘from where the Russian land appeared’. There is no mention of Ukraine, Russia, or Byelorussia – only the Russian land is mentioned. And do we have the right to deny our history, our ideals, renounce our saints, monasteries, services, our common language for political reasons?” head of the Russian Orthodox Church said.
