PATRIARCH KIRILL: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS SHOW SOLIDARITY OF RUSSIANS AROUND NATIONAL LEADER
Interfax-Religiia, 19 March 2018
Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill congratulated Vladimir Putin on his reelection to the office of president of Russia, calling him a nation-wide leader.
"Your convincing victory in the elections in conditions of an open and honest procedure, with high voter turnout, testifies to the solidarity around you of Russians who belong to different nationalities, religions, and confessions, to different social and age groups, and even to different political views," the patriarch's congratulations say, which were distributed on Monday by his press service.
In the opinion of the primate of the church, the results of expression of the will of the people testify to the concordance of popular aspirations with the way V. Putin sees the future of Russia, "a peace-loving, truly sovereign state, in which human rights and liberties are secured in conjunction with the responsibility for maintaining and multiplying the spiritual, moral, and cultural values that have formed our nation."
"May the Lord preserve you in good health of soul and body and may he give you strength to accomplish the plans you have in mind that are so decisively supported by our people. In the name of the Russian Orthodox Church I proclaim to you, the nation-wide leader: many and good years!" the patriarch's statement says. (tr. by PDS, posted 21 March 2018)
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