Kirill: Liberal ideas will weaken Russians

Patriarch Kirill urged Russian diplomats not to humiliate themselves in front of foreign observers and judges, Ekho Moskvy reports. He made this statement at the Russian Academy of Civil Service, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate. The primate of the Russian Orthodox Church considers it unacceptable for external forces to evaluate life in Russia according to alien civilizational and cultural standards. He also expressed confidence that the Russians would be weak and unable to defend their country if liberal ideas were instilled in them.

According to the patriarch, Russian foreign policy for quite a long time was focused on the desire to "prove to outsiders that we are good boys, we live by the same criteria, we just have some shortcomings." "Diplomacy humiliatingly explained to the judges, who impose their own criteria on our situation, that we are just like them, we are just as good, and they just have erroneous information, and they misunderstood us," the patriarch said.

Patriarch Kirill believes that the evaluation criterion, characteristic of a different cultural and historical environment, "cannot be indisputable for assessing the situation in Russia." Otherwise, accusations that "allegedly there is a threat of clericalization" in Russia will inevitably appear in documents similar to the US State Department's annual reports on the situation with freedom of conscience, he noted.

The patriarch also said that the modern European, "focused on success, prosperity and comfort," is inferior to the "passionate force that Islamic communities in Europe are today." He recalled that for Muslim countries, the religious factor in public life has always played a primary role, while in Europe the situation is reversed, and many Europeans are losing "the ability to go on a feat, to give their lives for their homeland."

"If we consistently implement liberal ideas in the public consciousness (not in the economy, in the economy liberalism is a relevant phenomenon and an important factor, albeit with reservations), then we will also get a weak person who does not defend either the Motherland or his neighbor" , - says the patriarch. According to him, the following logic will be typical for such a person: "I pay money, I pay taxes, and let those who receive a salary defend their homeland, but for now I will leave for the Bahamas."