The head of the Russian Orthodox Church's missionary department in the Siberian city of Tomsk reportedly suggests "depurging" a taboo word that roughly translates as "whore". Russian news website Gazeta says Maksim Stepanenko made the comments on a local website in response to official figures showing 28% of the region's 14,401 births last year were out of wedlock. This "outstanding old Russian word" ought to be used for single mothers, he suggested, as it was not considered offensive in the past and therefore "cannot be obscene, disgusting and unacceptable". Russian news sources do not share his opinion, referring to it only as "the word which begins with B".