Russian Patriarch Kirill, who celebrated Christmas alongside President Vladimir Putin, said in his Christmas sermon today that the Western world despises Russia and its "alternative path of civilizational development", Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church stated this after the Christmas Divine Liturgy, which he celebrated in the Moscow temple "Christ the Savior", TASS reported.
Kirill consecrated icons and crosses on which the initials of President Putin will be engraved. They will be sent to servicemen on the front in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"Russia has challenged the great powers not with its nuclear capabilities or might", Patriarch Kirill noted.
"They hate us because we offer a different, alternative path for civilizational development", Kirill said at the temple, which was rebuilt on the site of a swimming pool after Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin razed it to the ground in the 1930s, Reuters reported.
"Physically, they cannot actually suffocate us, although they are trying through various slanders and the creation of some kind of alliances aimed at weakening Russia. But nothing will work, because God is with us," the Russian patriarch added.
Before the service, conducted by Kirill, Putin visited the church of "St. George the Victorious" together with veterans of the conflict with Ukraine, Reuters specifies.