Group says insulting the Russian Orthodox Church is ‘cultural suicide’ and ‘Western colonialism’
The World Russian People's Council, which is headed by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has drafted a series of proposals, one of which advocates equating insults against the Church with Russophobia.
The Council offers Pussy Riot’s infamous “punk prayer” in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February 2012 as an example of attacks on the Church that are synonymous with Russophobia.
The group argues that Russophobia flows from the “residue of a colonial way of thinking” that endures in Western leaders. In Russia, the Council says, Russophobes “are often people who have sided with Western civilization.”
“Defamatory actions against the Russian Orthodox Church should be considered a form of Russophobia and the culturcide [cultural suicide] of the Russian people,” the Council says.
- The World Russian People's Council was founded in 1993. Participants include state officials, community leaders, clergy members of the major religions in Russia, and others.