Russian Patriarch Votes For ‘Stability’

3/3/2012

The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church said he was hoping for a continuation of the country’s “peaceful development” as he cast his vote in presidential elections on Sunday.

“Let Our Fatherland continue its peaceful, calm, purposeful and consistent development both in the spiritual and material fields as a result of the elections,” Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said.

Kirill voted from his working residence in Chisty Pereulok in Moscow, where he also voted last December during Russia’s disputed parliamentary elections.

Those elections triggered mass protests over alleged vote fraud in favor of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s party.

Kirill praised Putin – who is seeking to secure a third term of office at Sunday’s polls – in February for his role in helping Russia overcome “the crisis” of the immeditate post-Soviet years. Putin has pointed to Russia’s current “stability” after the turbulent Yeltsin era as one of the major achievements of his rule.

Russians are voting on Sunday to elect a president for the fifth time in the nation’s post-Soviet history. Putin faces four opponents, none of which, analysts say, is likely to prove a serious threat to his bid to return to the Kremlin after a four-year hiatus. Putin was president from 2000 to 2008, but was forced to stand down by the Constitution, which limits presidents to two “consecutive” terms.
Some 110 million Russian citizens, including 2 million expatriates around the world, are eligible to vote in the presidential election. The winner of the elections will serve a six-year presidential term and not four as was previously the case.

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