On February 17, representatives of the city department of education of the city department of Samara and the Samara diocese agreed to introduce a course on the basics of Orthodoxy in the city's schools. Middle school students will study this subject on a voluntary basis. Sources The basics of Orthodoxy will be taught in the schools of Samara // Radonezh. 2004. February 19.

The sixth issue of the journal "The expert marked the topic of the issue with a discussion about "should one vote for Putin?" the more, the better.The authors of the article proceed from the assertion, in our opinion, extremely doubtful, that the more votes Putin gets in the elections, and, accordingly, the more confident he feels "in the kingdom", the less he will be influenced by court factions and political opponents.

On February 19, 2004, in a school in Yekaterinburg, Marina Kopylova, the head of the district department of public education, categorically ordered the cancellation of the "peace lesson" that the Human Rights Society "Memorial" and the center of Chechen culture "Vainakh" were going to conduct.

Yuri Luzhkov signed a decree on the free transfer of two land plots in the Western Administrative District with a total area of ​​about 27 hectares to the Russian Orthodox Church.

On February 19, 2004, Lyubov Evgenyevna Pasternak, the mother of Johnson Lim, who was beaten by three fifth graders, left a statement with the police. came to her house On February 28, 2004 , a "lady - a police officer, moreover from another regional department" , who stated that the victim himself was to blame for what had happened, because he was a "bad child" . And the attacker, Y. Osipenko, accidentally hit him, and the police closed the case.

During negotiations between the head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Kirill (Gundyaev) and the Chairman of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper, an agreement was reached to establish a joint commission to resolve disputes between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches.

The mayor's office of Kyzyl, in order to save money, ordered to combine several holidays: Shagaa, the new year according to the Buddhist calendar (this year falls on February 21), Defender of the Fatherland Day and Maslenitsa. Lyudmila Volgina, Vice Mayor of Kyzyl, who heads the organizing committee for the preparation of the holidays, said that Shagaa and Maslenitsa are spiritual holidays, so services will be held in all churches.

Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov) Orthodox Rehabilitation Center for drug addicts has started its work at the rural church in the Kimrsky district of the Tver region. The pupils of the Center pass the first stage in Moscow, in another center of Hieromonk Anatoly, the second - near Kimry. Those wishing to get rid of drug addiction will be engaged in restoration and economic work at the temple. It is planned to place a carpentry shop at the center.

Kredo.ru published an article from the Belgorod newspaper "Meridian", which refers to a document published by the information and analytical department of the administration of the Belgorod region, "On the rules of behavior and communication in an Orthodox church." The rules are preceded by a comment: “Currently, at various events taking place in Orthodox churches ... there is ...

An agreement on cooperation in the social sphere was signed between the government of the Jewish Autonomous Region and the Birobidzhan diocese. The agreement provides for the joint care of the government and the Church for low-income residents of the region, the provision of targeted medical and social assistance, and activities to prevent alcoholism and drug addiction. The document was signed by Governor Nikolai Volkov and Bishop of Birobidzhan and Kuldur Joseph (Balabanov).

Analyzing the work of the popular writer Boris Akunin, L. Pirogov expressed dissatisfaction with the image of the nun Pelagia, a character in three books by B. Akunin, on the pages of the Literaturnaya Gazeta. “It is unlikely that an Orthodox nun would be able to face such knick-knacks that neither an Anglican pastor nor a Franciscan eager for the works of Aristotle would allow themselves,” noted Lev Pirogov. Sources L. Pirogov. "Mr. Bad" // Literary newspaper. 2004. No. 3 (32).

Vasily Shakhnovsky's verdict provoked new "suggestions" on how to punish the oligarchs. On February 13, 2004, for example, Izvestia published a letter from Anatoly Kononov, who believes that the judiciary should correct the mistakes of the legislature, so the court's decision in the Shakhnovsky case should have been as follows. Firstly, taxpayers' incomes exceeding 100 minimum wages should not be considered wages for labor, but "income related to property, property, etc.

The artist Ilya Glazunov on February 13 in the program "Freedom of Speech" spoke in favor of the introduction of proportional national representation in government. And although in the end he declared that he considered Russian "he who loves Russia", the following statements were made in the artist's speech: "Asia is silently conquering Russia" , meanwhile, as a Muscovite, sent, for example, to Dushanbe "to teach people to get off trees, no soap", etc., cannot return to Russia.

Curricula on the basics of Islam and Orthodoxy are being developed in Almetyevsk. According to the head of the administration of the Almetyevsk district, the introduction of religious disciplines is necessary to overcome the spiritual crisis in which today's youth find themselves. The Department of Education of Almetyevsk believes that such lessons should be conducted not by priests and imams, but by specially trained teachers (there are 53 such people in Almetyevsk now).

The Moscow Regional Committee for Youth Affairs organized a sociological study on the topic "The State of Spiritual, Moral and Material Values ​​among Youth". The study was conducted by the Institute of Socio-Economic Forecasting and Modeling. One of the sections of the study was the question of attitudes towards religion. About a thousand boys and girls aged 16 to 23 were interviewed. 56% of respondents consider themselves believers, of which 79% are Orthodox.