Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has called on the nation not to despair because of the economic crisis.

“Right now, generally speaking, the burden is relative: people are earning a little more or a little less (God forbid, of course, the economic situation should get worse), but generally speaking there's no tragedy in the country today,” Kirill said in an interview that aired on national television on Thursday, January 7. The Patriarch added that Russians failing to cope with the current recession are "faint-hearted, weak-willed, and empty."

In the same interview, Kirill also defended Moscow's airstrikes in Syria as a justified "defensive war."