“I would like to particularly emphasize the partisan cooperation as I already see possible objections: what are we going to do about competition among political forces, partisan struggle, election campaigns. I think, in a society – a united society traditional for Russia, if you will – political parties must compete not in the sense of opposing various values, for example the freedom and justice, state power and dignity, but in the sense of harmonization, concurrent implementation, realization in the form of political action and legislative acts – that is the field for political pluralism,” the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church said at Christmas parliamentary readings in the State Duma on Thursday.
“People cannot think in the same way: they are different, by their culture, education, traditions, political preferences,” Patriarch Kirill said.
“The sphere of politics is the superstructure. The base is the sphere of values. And not one Russian party must destroy this base of values, otherwise Russia will be no more,” the patriarch said.
“The current State Duma virtually epitomizes what I have just said,” the church leader said.
“I would like to say the same about the attitude of various political forces towards our national history: by keeping a sober attitude towards our history, without forgetting its difficult and sometimes shameful pages, one must forgo the civil war of recollections,” he said.
“The idea of unity and continuity of the historical memory, protecting the national heritage against falsifications, against biased misinterpretation of the past reality “must form a base of values for cooperation among political forces,” the patriarch said.
