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Archdeacon Kurayev believes calling Pussy Riot girls prisoners of conscience is a profanation of the high title

Moscow, April 5, Interfax - Giving Pussy Riots members a status of prisoners of conscience devaluates it, professor of the Moscow Theological Academy Archdeacon Andrey Kurayev believes.

"If we call these women prisoners of conscience, it will be an act of profanation, of not Christian, but secular human right shrine as a prisoner of conscience is a very serious status. Then we could call Alla Pugachyova (Russian pop diva - IF) a hero of the Soviet Union. It would be a profanation of the renowned title that was washed with blood," Father Andrey told Interfax-Religion.

According to him, a prisoner of conscience is similar to the status of hero: "there is much blood, tears and real human tragedies."

The interviewee of the agency said that to call "these hooligans" with word combination that was attached to Christian martyrs who showed courage in Soviet times, "it means to devaluate this phrase very very low and it means to devaluate the moral status of those who believe they have right to allot this high status to anyone."

Archdeacon Kurayev pointed out that it "is our national trait to fall in the extremes: demonization or canonization."

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