Medvedev says Stalinist repressions cannot be justified.

MOSCOW, October 30 (Itar-Tass) -- President Dmitry Medvedev said on
the Day of Remembrance of victims of political repressions marked on
Friday there can be no justification for Stalinist-era GULAG as nothing can value more than human life.

He rejected claims that mass repressions at the time were justified by
"top state interests".
"I am convinced that no development of the country, no successes and
ambitions can be achieved at the expense of human grief and losses.
Nothing can treasure more than human life. There is no justification to
repressions," the president said in his video blog.
"Let's only think that millions of people died because of terror and
false accusations. Millions were deforced of their rights, even of the
right for decent burial, and for long years their names were deleted from
history," Medvedev said.
"It is even impossible to comprehend the scope of terror, from which
all peoples of the country suffered. It peaked in 1937-1938," Medvedev
said quoting GULAG Archipelago author and Nobel Prize winner Alexander
Solzhenitsyn who described the endless flow of repressed people as "the
Volga of popular grief".
"For 20 pre-war years the whole strata and estates of our people were
exterminated. Cossacks were nearly liquidated. "Kulak" peasants were
dispossessed and bled white. Intellectuals, workers and the military were
subject to political repressions. Representatives of absolutely all
religious confessions were persecuted," the president said.
"I am convinced that remembrance of national tragedies is as sacred as
commemoration of victories. It is extremely important for young people to
have both historic knowledge and public spirit and be able to emotionally
empathize one of the greatest tragedies in Russian history," Medvedev said.
He recalled an opinion poll two years ago, which revealed that nearly
90 percent of young Russians aged from 18 to 24 could not name a single
outstanding person that suffered or died because of repressions. "That
cannot but cause concern," the president said.
October 30 is the day of remembrance of millions of "people executed
without trial or investigation, people sent to GULAG and exile, stripped
of civil rights for the 'wrong' occupation or for the notorious "social
origin". The 'enemy of the people' stigma stained the whole families",
according to the president.
"We are paying much attention to the fight against falsification of
our history. But we sometimes believe the talk is only about
inadmissibility of revision of the results of the Great Patriotic War. But
it is no less important to prevent under the pretext of historic justice
exoneration of those who exterminated their own people," the president
said, adding Russia has to "accept its past as it was."
"It is important to study the past, to overcome indifference and
intention to forget its tragic sides. Nobody but us can do that," the
president said.
A memorial service will take place on Friday in Lubyanka Square in
Moscow in front of the former KGB building. The service was blessed by
Russian Patriarch Kirill, whose father was repressed for singing in church
choir and grandfather imprisoned for 30 years.
The Remembrance Day was instituted in Russia in 1991 after the Soviet
disintegration. According to the latest data, in the '20s-50s 52 million
people were sentenced for political reasons, six million were exiled
without any court sentence and one million executed.

.Putin to discuss preparations for United Russia congress.

MOSCOW, October 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who
heads the United Russia Party, will meet party leaders on Friday to
discuss preparations for the upcoming United Russia congress and the
approval of the 2010 budget in the State Duma.
The government press service said Putin will meet with United Russia
Supreme Council Chairman and State Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov, Secretary
of the General Council Board of the party Vyacheslav Volodin, General
Council Board member Oleg Morozov, and head of the Central Executive
Committee Andrei Vorobyov.


.Patriarch to discuss Russian church in Ecuador.

MOSCOW, October 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Patriarch Kirill will meet
President of Ecuador Rafael Correa in Christ the Savior Cathedral in
Moscow on Friday to discuss the construction of a Russian Orthodox Church
in the South American country.
The press service of the Moscow Patriarchate said it will be the
second meeting with Correa. A year ago Kirill visited Ecuador and
discussed with the president prospects for the construction of the first
Orthodox church in Kito.
The Patriarchate said Correa welcomed the idea.
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