The Deputy Speaker of the State Duma called opponents of the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church descendants of people from “the Pale of Settlement”

State Duma Vice Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy, commenting on the protests against the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church on January 23, called the opponents of this decision of the authorities of St. Petersburg the descendants of people who "jumped out of the Pale of Settlement."

“I want to add on my own behalf that, watching the protests around the transfer of Isaac, I cannot help but notice an amazing paradox: people who are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who destroyed our churches, jumping out there ... because of the Pale of Settlement (the territory on which in the Russian Jews were allowed to live in the empire - approx. Meduza ) with a revolver in the seventeenth year, today their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, working in various other very respected places - at radio stations, in legislative assemblies - continue the work of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, ”quotes Tolstoy "Echo of Moscow".

Tolstoy commented on the situation around Isaakievsky at a press conference in TASS dedicated to the opening of the Christmas readings "1917-2017: lessons of the century." In the reports of TASS, RIA Novosti and Interfax, the words of the vice-speaker about the Pale of Settlement are not given. Ekho Moskvy published an audio recording of Tolstoy's words.

Boris Vishnevsky, deputy of the St. Petersburg legislature, who opposes the transfer of the cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church, announced his intention to complain about Tolstoy after consulting with lawyers to the Investigative Committee or the prosecutor's office, since he considers his statement "inciting ethnic hatred."

The representative of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Borukh Gorin, in a commentary to the radio station, called Tolstoy's words "open anti-Semitism."

on his Facebook Tolstoy himself wrote that “only people with a sick imagination and who do not know the history of their country can see in [his] words ‘signs of anti-Semitism’.”

• In January 2017, the authorities of St. Petersburg announced a decision to transfer St. Isaac's Cathedral, which is in the use of the museum, to the Russian Orthodox Church. This decision was opposed by the Creative Union of Museum Workers of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, the Regional Union of Scientists and a number of other public organizations.
• Pyotr Tolstoy is a former host of the Vremya news program and the Vremya Pokazhet talk show on Channel One. In 2016, he became a State Duma deputy from United Russia and holds the post of deputy chairman of the lower house.