☦️President of Russia Vladimir Putin congratulated all Orthodox Christians and all Russians celebrating Christmas.
The message reads, in part:
✉️ “This bright, much-awaited holiday is dear to millions of people all over the world. It gives believers joy and hope and inspires good thoughts, deeds and actions. During the Christmas season we clearly feel with all our heart how important for us are parental, family traditions that are being handed down from generation to generation.
I should say that the Russian Orthodox Church and other Christian denominations in Russia play a tremendous creative role in uniting the people and in preserving our historical memory and unique cultural and spiritual heritage. Religious organisations make a meaningful contribution to strengthening the institution of the family, to educating young people and to affirming in society such intransient moral ideals and values as caring for one's neighbour, mercy and compassion, and support for those in need of help and attention. This multifaceted and much needed work deserves most profound recognition.
I wish Orthodox Christians and all Russian citizens celebrating Christmas good health and wellbeing.”
☦️President of Russia Vladimir Putin congratulated all Orthodox Christians and all Russians celebrating Christmas.
The message reads, in part:
✉️ “This bright, much-awaited holiday is dear to millions of people all over the world. It gives believers joy and hope and inspires good thoughts, deeds and actions. During the Christmas season we clearly feel with all our heart how important for us are parental, family traditions that are being handed down from generation to generation.
I should say that the Russian Orthodox Church and other Christian denominations in Russia play a tremendous creative role in uniting the people and in preserving our historical memory and unique cultural and spiritual heritage. Religious organisations make a meaningful contribution to strengthening the institution of the family, to educating young people and to affirming in society such intransient moral ideals and values as caring for one's neighbour, mercy and compassion, and support for those in need of help and attention. This multifaceted and much needed work deserves most profound recognition.
I wish Orthodox Christians and all Russian citizens celebrating Christmas good health and wellbeing.”
Andrey, a Russian entrepreneur living in Brazil who, fearing retaliation, asked that NPR not use his last name, said Telegram has become one of the few places Russians can access independent news about the war. Pavel Durov, a billionaire who embraces an all-black wardrobe and is often compared to the character Neo from "the Matrix," funds Telegram through his personal wealth and debt financing. And despite being one of the world's most popular tech companies, Telegram reportedly has only about 30 employees who defer to Durov for most major decisions about the platform. After fleeing Russia, the brothers founded Telegram as a way to communicate outside the Kremlin's orbit. They now run it from Dubai, and Pavel Durov says it has more than 500 million monthly active users. At this point, however, Durov had already been working on Telegram with his brother, and further planned a mobile-first social network with an explicit focus on anti-censorship. Later in April, he told TechCrunch that he had left Russia and had “no plans to go back,” saying that the nation was currently “incompatible with internet business at the moment.” He added later that he was looking for a country that matched his libertarian ideals to base his next startup. "The result is on this photo: fiery 'greetings' to the invaders," the Security Service of Ukraine wrote alongside a photo showing several military vehicles among plumes of black smoke.
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