Vatican spokesman: Pope did not intend to glorify imperialism

The Vatican has commented on the Pope's speech to Russian youth, whom he called the heirs to "the great Russian empire, cultured, so much culture, so much humanity". 

Vatican News reports.

In his speech, the Pope also mentioned Peter I and Catherine II.

"The Pope intended to encourage young people to preserve and promote all that is positive in the great cultural and Russian spirituality, and certainly not to exalt imperialist logic and government personalities, cited to indicate some historical periods of reference," said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press centre.

The day before, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry commented on these statements, saying that it was precisely the kind of imperialist propaganda that the Kremlin used to justify the killing of thousands of Ukrainians and the destruction of Ukrainian towns and villages.