Russia labels Pope Francis racist over remarks about 'cruel' minority soldiers
Russia accused Pope Francis of being racist after he argued that minority Chechen and Buryat soldiers fighting in Ukraine showed more cruelty on the battlefield than ethnic Russian troops.
Pope Francis sparked an outrage in Russia by arguing in an interview that Kremlin’s Chechen and Buryat troops fighting in Ukraine were more cruel compared to ethnic Russians.The envoy told the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that he met Monday with a Vatican official to express his “indignation” about Francis’ remarks.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova was even less diplomatic in her condemnation of the comments, calling them a “perversion.” She added: “Russia is waging an imperial war started and led by Vladimir Putin, who is by all accounts not a member of an ethnic minority. The pope should condemn him personally, but he decided to sidestep the Russian president.”
His latest comments draw a line between soldiers who follow “the Russian tradition,” possibly meaning the Orthodox Christian faith, and members of ethnic and religious minorities — when in fact Russian troops have been accused of war crimes regardless of their ethnicity. Elsewhere in the interview with the religious magazine, Francis said it was clear that Ukraine was the “martyred” victim in the war, but he also defended his reluctance to denounce Putin.
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