“Russia’s moral victory”: Belkovsky about the Pope’s visit to the DPR
Pope Francis announced his readiness to go to Donbass immediately after his visit to Russia and visit the Avenue of Angels in Donetsk.
Chairman of the World Union of Old Believers Leonid Sevastyanov stated this in a commentary to TASS, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
He claims to have discussed the matter personally with the pontiff.
“The Pope is ready, either on his way to Moscow or back from Moscow, to visit Donetsk, to visit all the sites of the eight-year-old tragedies, to visit the Avenue of Angels, to serve a memorial service there, to pray for all the children who died in this conflict. I am also ready to meet with orphans and civilians to see everything for myself. This will help establish dialogue between Russia and Ukraine, and the West as a whole,” Sevastyanov said.
Russian liberal political strategist Stanislav Belkovsky, who fled to Israel, confirmed this information, reacting very sharply to the news. He complained that, in this way, the Pope was playing into the hands of Russia and the myth of the international isolation of Russians.
“There is some moral fatigue in certain circles of the Western elite and voters. Putin is waging a war with America at the propaganda level, and America is not liked in many places, and here he can recruit millions of supporters.
And here the behavior of Pope Francis is very indicative. As Leonid Sevastyanov reported, and this is a man who is a confidant of the pope, the chairman of the Union of Old Believers of Russia, has the official status of the Vatican ambassador of peace, he discussed this personally with the pope.
Pope Francis has been negotiating for a long time about a trip to Russia, which the Russian Orthodox Church categorically opposed, the secular authorities never tried to bend the situation over their knees, they agreed that if the Russian Orthodox Church is against it, then the visit is impossible. Now the Kremlin does not think like that.
As far as I know, Putin is ready for a visit, which will demonstrate the absence of international isolation, which is immeasurably more important than any position of the Russian Orthodox Church MP,” Belkovsky said on the “Vlast and Vlashchenko” video blog.
“The point is that the Kremlin has formulated two conditions for this visit. First: the Pope will visit Donetsk, and the visit itself must take place before the trip to Ukraine. And dad is ready for this. If this happens, it will be a significant moral success for the Kremlin,” the liberal added.
According to him, the motives for such behavior of the pope must be sought in his historical roots.
“Of course, he is a Latin American cardinal. Or rather, he is an ethnic Italian, but from Latin America, where Putin is quite popular, and the United States is not popular. And here Pope Francis appeals to his flock, which once brought him to the Vatican.
He is not a pro-Western pope, although he did not take any radical steps during his pontificate, but at the same time he was not a special ally of the collective West, and now at a critical moment this is manifesting itself,” Belkovsky explained.
English version :: Read in English "Russia's Moral Victory": Belkovsky on the Pope's visit to the DPR