Pope Francis remarked that troops from some ethnic groups are acting worse than others, and Moscow condemned these remarks, calling them perversions, writes BBC.
Pope gave an interview to Jesuit magazine America and mentioned that Buryats and Chechens that fight on the Russian side are crueler. Russia answered that it is wrongful and offensive, and all minorities in Russia are «one family». In an interview, Pope also called the 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine genocide. The famine was intentionally made by Kremlin.
BNN previously wrote that Kremlin would like the Vatican to mediate peace talks.
Read also: Kremlin: We would agree to Vatican as mediator
Pope expressed his views about the cruelty of Buryats and Chechens when asked about his attitude towards Russia’s war.
He said that he receives plenty of information: «The cruelest are perhaps those who are of Russia but are not of the Russian tradition, such as the Chechens, the Buryats, and so on.»
Moscow replied to this by saying that this is not just Russophobia, but a new level of «perversion». Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: «We are one family with Buryats, Chechens, and other representatives of our multinational and multi-confessional country.»
Russia’s main religion is Orthodox Christianity, but the country has many republics with different religious affiliations. Chechens, an ethnic group from southwest Russia, are primarily Islamic, but Buryats traditionally are Buddhists or follow shamanic religions.