Russia lashes out at Pope Francis for singling out ethnic minority soldiers

Pope Francis' explosive interview with a magazine has made the Kremlin upset amidst the growing crisis of the Russia-Ukraine war. On November 29, the Russian administration called out the stance made by the head of the Catholic Church, who singled out soldiers of ethnic minority groups in a recent interview. Pope Francis has maintained a very distanced stance when it comes to the Ukraine war. Despite the fact that he has condemned the violence that has been escalating since the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, he didn’t explicitly blame one side for the war, until recently. 

In a recent interview with 'America', a Jesuit magazine, Pope Francis was asked about his reluctance to directly condemn Russia for the war, to which he responded, “Generally, the cruellest are perhaps those who are of Russia but are not of the Russian tradition, such as the Chechens, the Buryats and so on." He then went on to label the Holodomor famine of the 1930s “a genocide”. 

Addressing the recent comments made by the sovereign of Vatican City, the Russian bloc lashed out at the head of the Catholic Church, calling his remarks a “perversion”. Russia later asserted that the “national groups are one family.” While Chechens are an ethnic group that originated in Chechnya and are mostly Muslims, the Buryats have their origins in eastern Siberian and follow Buddhist belief systems. The Russian majority on the other hand follows Orthodox Christianity. 

'It is very well known whom I am condemning': Pope Francis

When asked about whether the Vatican head has spoken to the Presidents of the two sparring countries. The Pope stated that he had spoken to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on phone and had communicated with Russian President Vladimir Putin through the Ambassador of Vatican City. When the Pope was asked why he didn’t explicitly condemn the Russian President, he said, “Sometimes I try not to specify so as not to offend and rather condemn in general, although it is well known whom I am condemning. It is not necessary that I put a name and surname."

Commenting on the remarks made by Pope Francis, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Russian news agency RT, “This is no longer Russophobia, it's a perversion on a level I can't even name.” She then went on to write on Telegram, “We are one family with Buryats, Chechens, and other representatives of our multinational and multi-confessional country.”