The Russian Orthodox Church has called on the authorities to base their policy on Alexander III's bequest to his son, Emperor Nicholas II.
"Be independent in foreign policy. Remember that Russia has no friends. They fear our hugeness. Avoid wars. In domestic policy, support the Church in the first turn. It has saved Russia in times of ordeal before. Strengthen the family because the family is the pillar of the state," Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, said at the first meeting of the State Duma Speaker's Expert Panel.
These simple truths come from "one of the most outstanding rulers of this country and may become fundamental vectors of the Russian domestic and foreign policies," he said.
Not a single country, including Russia, can be immune from foreign influence, as is happening in the Middle East and North Africa where regimes are changing, the Metropolitan said.
One must think about public consolidation in the first turn in order to resist this influence, he said.
Focus on traditional moral and religious values and the family "should become the token of the sound evolutionary instead of revolutionary development of the state," he added.
"Be independent in foreign policy. Remember that Russia has no friends. They fear our hugeness. Avoid wars. In domestic policy, support the Church in the first turn. It has saved Russia in times of ordeal before. Strengthen the family because the family is the pillar of the state," Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, said at the first meeting of the State Duma Speaker's Expert Panel.
These simple truths come from "one of the most outstanding rulers of this country and may become fundamental vectors of the Russian domestic and foreign policies," he said.
Not a single country, including Russia, can be immune from foreign influence, as is happening in the Middle East and North Africa where regimes are changing, the Metropolitan said.
One must think about public consolidation in the first turn in order to resist this influence, he said.
Focus on traditional moral and religious values and the family "should become the token of the sound evolutionary instead of revolutionary development of the state," he added.