Russian Church looking forward to Olympics in Sochi

Moscow, December 9, (Interfax) - Russia can show its spiritual strength, culture and national face at Sochi Olympics 2014, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes.

"It (Olympic Games - IF) is a great and important event. It will not only contribute in sport developing, attracting investments, developing infrastructure and so on as people usually say, but I'd like to say one more thing. Olympic Games are a chance to show the world the face of our nation," the Patriarch said at a reception given by the Krasnodar District governor Alexander Tkachev in Krasnodar.

According to the Primate, Chinese used the Olympics "brilliantly" in this sense.

The Russian Church official website says Patriarch Kirill urged "to show Russia's face, our national face, our originality, our spiritual strength and culture" during the Olympics "so that people who have known nothing about our country except matryoshkas, black caviar and vodka, had no associations with Russia, suddenly say: it's a great country, they're great people, it's a colossal moral tradition, it's a great spiritual power."

Patriarch Kirill hopes that under Tkachev's guidance "much will be done" in this direction and stressed that "without Kuban's potential it is impossible to imagine Russia at Sochi Olympics."