The human rights movement in Russia has discredited itself and must be led by absolutely new people, the top official of the Russian Orthodox Church said on Monday.
In an interview with an orthodox radio station Radonezh, the head of external ties of the Moscow patriarchy, Metropolitan Kirill, said that the “so-called” human rights movement consisted mostly of people who “fight the Russian Orthodox Church, do not like Russia (and that is a very gentle expression), and see human rights violations anywhere in Russia but not against Russians themselves in the Baltic states, in the North Caucasus, and other places.”
He mentioned, however, several people who “try to defend the rights of the miserable ones” from the despotism of the officials in the regions of Russia. But speaking on human rights organizations with national status, the metropolitan said that “our community already has no illusions left in respect to such organizations.”
“Today it must be rebuilt, absolutely new people must appear at the head of such movements, people who love their country, their nation, are courageous, able to defend the rights and interests of their nationals anywhere they are violated, including Russia itself,” Kirill said. In this case, their work could rehabilitate the idea of defending human rights which has been “discredited for many long years ahead”.