On March 2, 2012, DECR Chairman Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk attended the first meeting of the Experts Council under the chairman of the Russian Federation State Duma. The meeting, which took place at the Duma’s residence in Serebryany Bor, was chaired by Duma Chairman S. Naryshkin.
Among the participants were political scientists, economists, historians, rectors of leading universities in Russia and public figures.
Opening the meeting Mr. Naryshkin said in particular, ‘I would like to remind you that according to presidential decree, this year has been declared the Year of Russian History. I believe it will be correct for us to remember the events which played a role in the development of democratic institutions in our country and, among other things, laid down the traditions of Russian parliamentarianism.
In his remarks, Metropolitan Hilarion noted that two remarkable anniversaries will be celebrated in 2012 – the 400th anniversary of the victory of the Poles and the end of the Time of Trouble and the 200th anniversary of the victory in the 1812 Patriotic War. ‘The Year of Russian History should first of all teach us the fact that really solid can be the state power which rests upon history and draws lessons from it’, he said. Having cited the statement of Emperor Alexander III concerning the domestic and foreign policy of the Russian state, Metropolitan Hilarion stressed that ‘reliance on traditional moral, including religious, values and reliance on the family should be a guarantee of evolutionary, not revolutionary, development of our state’.
Speaking about the ‘Arab Spring’, he pointed to the interference of external forces in the situation in the Middle East: ‘Planning and realizing a power change in a particular state, these external forces act, above all, in their own political, economic and financial interests’. He said, ‘due to a change in the political regime in this or that country, power is taken as a rule by radical forces while the country finds itself in the situation of either civil war or prolonged internal confrontation. At the same time, Christians flee en masse from the countries in which they have lived together with Muslims and people of other faiths peacefully for centuries.
‘No country, including ours, is secure against such external influences’, he continued, ‘for us to oppose them we should first of all think about the consolidation of our population. The recent events have shown that our people do have a certain protest attitude which has not developed from nothing, because there are economic problems; there is a gap between rich and poor and a very high level of corruption. And people express their just discontent, including by means of rallies’.
At the same time, Metropolitan Hilarion said, ‘there is such a notion as majority will. If there is a majority will, the minority, whether they agree with this will or not, should comply with it. In precisely this lies the principle of social accord – consensus’.
During the meeting, which lasted over two hours, participants exchanged opinions on a wide range of issues concerning the work of the highest legislating body of the Russian Federation.