from bad to worse

During the meeting (devoted to the 20th anniversary of the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church, -- what does it mean???) the president made several statements. He said the values traditional for the state must be further promoted. "The Orthodox Church is the keeper of these values and truths of monumental importance for our state," he said. Medvedev also spoke about the role the Orthodox community is playing in Russia's development, describing it as "people with an extremely powerful inner energy and strong moral values." Hopefully, the state will rely on them, he said.

Medvedev also announced that he would ask the Defense Ministry to increase the corps of military clergy and he supported the idea of expanding theologian culture and secular ethics programs at schools, if the parents do not object.

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Orthodoxy "helps tremendous numbers of our people not only to find their place in life but also to understand what would seem to be pretty simple things," Medvedev said.

"For example, such things as what it means to be Russian, what the mission of our people is, what made our nation great and gave it a unique identity in a definite period and what, at some point, gave a lot of trials to our nation and the Orthodox Church," he said.