Intercultural and intercivilizational relations have always provoked discussion. Claims to the knowledge of the universal laws of society development and the exact location of the ‘right side of history’ are bound to generate a counter reaction in the face of demands for cultural and historical pluralism and respect for the right to individually interpret the historical process and the ways of progress. The two points of view seem to balance each other.

Not being positioned as a specifically Catholic document, it is instead written in the style of global documents, is addressed to all mankind and holds discourse from the so-called non-confessional, universal positions. The Encyclical addresses the subjects of migration, economic injustice, international political instability and the increasing global intolerance.

The year 2019 witnessed a historical stage that can be defined as the rehabilitation of ideology. The need for an open discussion of Russian ideology was clearly expressed in the presidential address to the Federal Assembly in January 2020. The taboo on discussing state ideology has been lifted, which means that the elites are ready to express themselves directly in a forthright conversation with the people.

Our whole country seems to be discussing bills on ‘family and domestic violence’ prevention. As of now, there are two projects, created by the State Duma deputies and Federation Council members, circulating on the internet. I am sure they will come out with more. Both projects reveal the same conceptual character, and both aim to make the family and family relations subject to legal regulation at the legislative level, that is, to allow third parties to interfere in the relationship of husband and wife. These bills have come to be called ‘family dissolution law’ or ‘Pavlik Morozov law’.

"Glamour is one of the key concepts of contemporary culture, yet it remains largely unexplored. Glamour falls into the category of taboo subjects. In the 1990s the needs of bosses (managers) came to set the society's agenda. Magazines, books and films were churned out to provide entertainment for this privileged class. This conspicuous trend was even more pronounced in Russia than in the West. Glamour became the discourse of the minority which the latter imposed on the majority..."

The confrontation (supposedly spontaneous) between anticlericals and religious persons is just one of the points of protest activity application in the Russian ‘non-systemic' politics. The opposition insists that there is a conflict between the authorities and the civil society it claims to be by putting forward demands on behalf of all citizens, whom it does not represent in fact. This is a false mediation...

For a long time, it had looked as if the European values had ended in the 1990s. ‘The End of history’ did not take place and it was allowed to further run its course. Everyone could guess the direction of this trend: rights, freedoms, technologies, information, multiculturalism... unless we are forgetting something from the liberal list...

The threat of secular reformation is hanging over Orthodoxy. We have written about this more than once, but just a few years ago we could not have supposed that through the efforts of the Constantinople Patriarchate this threat would take on a completely new form, the form of Greco-Protestantism, about which we will speak more particularly below. The Russian Orthodox Church is at the moment not being accused of servility and phytelitsm, since against the background of the Ukrainian government’s interference in church life such accusations simply pale. Nevertheless, the general traits of many statements now coming from ideologists of religious reformation are the same as before – proposals to reorganize the entire church structure...