Moscow, Russia - The Russian Orthodox Church and church-affiliated organizations have slammed a statement by Vlyacheslav Glazychev, a member of the Public Chamber, in which he criticized "creeping clericalism" in Russia and called for the protection of secular life.
A Church spokesman called the statement "the rudimentary ideology of a political pensioner," and the Union of Orthodox Citizens called for the official's removal from the Public Chamber.
Another Orthodox group, the People's Council, appealed to the Prosecutor General's office on Tuesday with a request that criminal charges be brought against Vitaly Ginzburg, one of 10 Russian academics who recently sent an open letter to President Vladimir Putin criticizing the teaching of Orthodoxy in public schools.