MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. Pope Francis claims that his remarks about the cruelty of Buryat and Chechen soldiers were misinterpreted and were only a "figure of speech," the chairman of the World Union of Old Believers, Leonid Sevastyanov, told TASS on Tuesday, citing a letter he had received from the pontiff.

"He says that his words were distorted, that he, on the contrary, was defending Russian culture. He said that Russian culture is an integral part of European culture. When he mentioned the Buryats and Chechens, it was a figure of speech. He simply wished to say that even Ukrainians do not accuse Russians of cruelty. The exact opposite meaning of his words spread in the end," Sevastyanov said.

He stressed that the pontiff also noted that Russia was "an integral part" of Europe, which would be incomplete without it. "The Pope emphasized and confirmed that the Russian people are a great nation, interconnected with Europe. Russia has the same peaceful, humanistic culture. In other words, it cannot be demonized. It is wrong to say that the Russians are a cruel people. Because they are a European people like all others," Sevastyanov concluded.

Earlier, in an interview published by America The Jesuit Review magazine, the Pope called military personnel from Buryatia and Chechnya "the cruelest" soldiers in Ukraine. His remark sparked a wide public outcry both in these republics and in Russia as a whole. Russia’s ambassador to the Vatican, Alexander Avdeyev expressed indignation and made a statement to that effect to the leadership of the diplomatic service of the Holy See. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called such statements a distortion of the truth.