RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS



Russian president gives spiritual tinge to public appearance

PUTIN QUOTES WORDS FROM SCRIPTURE SPEAKING ABOUT PURPOSES OF SPECIAL OPERATION IN UKRAINE

Interfax-Religiia, 18 March 2022

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived Friday evening at a concert, "Crimean Spring," in the Luzhniki Moscow sports complex. The concert celebrated the anniversary of the reunification of Crimea with Russia. According to data of the M.V.D. there were more than 200 thousand persons gathered at the concert.

 

In his address, Putin noted that ending the genocide of the population of the Donbass is the chief goal of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. "It is to save people from these sufferings, from this genocide, that is the basic and chief reason, motive, and goal of the military operation, which we started in the Donbass and in Ukraine. It is this that is the goal," the president said.

 

Putin said it was against the residents of the Donbass who "disagreed with the political revolution [in 2014—IF] that punitive military operations were organized." "They were plunged into a blockade and subjected to systematic shelling and airstrikes. All of this is what is called 'genocide,'" he added.

 

Speaking about the dedication of Russian soldiers and officers, who are participating in the special operation in Ukraine, Putin said that an idea occurs to him in the words of Sacred Scripture: "There is no greater love than when someone gives his life for his friends."

 

"These words from Sacred Scripture of Christianity are dear to those who profess this religion. They express a universal value for all peoples and for representatives of all confessions of Russia, and they are for our people in the first place," the president noted. "The best proof of that is how they are fighting, how our guys are acting in the course of this military operation. We have not had such unity in a long time." (tr. by PDS, posted 19 March 2022)

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