Russia’s central bank has halted the circulation of a new 1,000 ruble note after Orthodox priests complained that the image of a church dome lacked a cross – even though it does not have one in real life.
The bank had presented new designs of the 1,000 and 5,000 ruble notes earlier this week.
One of them featured two religious sites in the majority-Muslim Tatarstan republic: a minaret with an Islamic crescent moon and an Orthodox church with a dome that did not have a cross on it.
The 17th-century church’s cross was removed by Bolsheviks after the 1917 revolution. The building now serves as a state museum.
But the lack of the cross quickly drew the ire of Orthodox clerics.
Pavel Ostrovsky, a priest, said on Telegram that the bill was either the result of “the stupidity of the designers” or a “deliberate provocation” by the “followers of Islam” in Tatarstan.
The celebrity priest, who has 174,000 followers on the app, said “there was no difference what the building looks like in real life” as most Russians do not know its history.
“there was no difference what the building looks like in real life” as most Russians do not know its history.
That seems to be a very Russian point of view. It’s reality that’s wrong. All that matters is what you feel.
A building that doesn’t have a cross on it should be drawn with a cross on it, and pig iron will stop a bullet, it’s all the same, you just have to believe strongly enough. And of course if that doesn’t work just make wild unfounded and easily disprovable accusations. After all if reality doesn’t matter then you can’t actually be wrong.
So much lulz in the article.
That seems to be a very Russian point of view. It’s reality that’s wrong. All that matters is what you feel.
A building that doesn’t have a cross on it should be drawn with a cross on it, and pig iron will stop a bullet, it’s all the same, you just have to believe strongly enough. And of course if that doesn’t work just make wild unfounded and easily disprovable accusations. After all if reality doesn’t matter then you can’t actually be wrong.