2012-05-02 11:59:00
Moscow, May 2, Interfax - Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations, believes that political parties do not reflect modern Russians' interests enough.
"With all my respect for political parties, both those represented in the parliament and those not represented in it, old and new parties, with all my satisfaction from dialogue and cooperation with them, with all my understanding that they are now turning to Christian values, I still believe their correlation with groups united by real public interests is becoming increasingly relative," Father Vsevolod said in an article published on the Interfax-Religion website.
"We only have three real 'parties': Orthodox, Muslims, and atheists, and they will determine the future of Russian politics, he said.
"The first two have many active members and they share many moral and social values. The third group has a lot of money, show business, the older part of the bureaucratic, expert, and media elite, and some young people who depend of those elites," the priest said in his article.
He believes these three "parties" will be fighting not only for the millions of "undecided" citizens, but also for the public system, "proposing different models of family, local society, law, and the state.
"However, none of them will destroy or squeeze the others from the country. This means that we need to harmonize our values and social models, including by thinking how to make the legal and public system as acceptable for each of the three 'parties' as possible. This means the debate can be systematized and reasonable reforms can be conducted, which are always better than animosity and conflicts," the priest said.