The Vatican sought to defend Pope Francis on Tuesday after he sparked fury in Ukraine by praising Russia’s imperial rulers — a history President Vladimir Putin has invoked to justify his ongoing war.
The Kremlin delighted in the controversy, which stemmed from comments the pontiff made to a group of young Russian Catholics urging them to see themselves as the heirs of a “great” empire.
“Don’t forget your heritage. You are the descendants of great Russia: the great Russia of saints, rulers, the great Russia of Peter I, Catherine II, that empire — educated, great culture and great humanity,” he told them in St. Petersburg by live video Friday.
Even though current Russia is reprehensible, he isn’t totally wrong about the achievements of past Russia.
People live in Russia and their ancestors lived there, need to give them something to be proud of that’s not the current government.
Sure - except with current worldwide climate of politicians using national pride to nurture nationalism and xenophobia (see US, Brazil, Hungary, Turkey, Russia, Poland, and I bet many other) - this is clearly going to be spun by Russian propaganda as external support for their “fight against EU and Ukraine aggression”.