Russian Atheists Want to Remove God from National Anthem

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Kprf) wants to delete the reference to God from the text of the national anthem. Boris Kashin, of the Chamber of Deputies of Moscow (the Duma), has submitted a bill to replace the phrase of the anthem that says "protected by God as our beloved homeland," with "protected by us as our beloved homeland”.

For the Kprf deputy reference to God undermines national unity and disrupts the multi-ethnic society in Russia. Kashin complains that the anthem does not respect the various non-Christian religions recognized in the Federation and offends the feelings of atheists.

Already in 2005, Alexander Nikonov, president of the Atheist Society of Moscow, had stated that the offending sentence is inconsistent with the constitutional rights of citizens and had lodged a complaint with the Constitutional Court. Today, as then, no one believes that the anthem will be changed also because the Kashin proposal has not met the support of any political leader in Russia. However, the incident has reopened the controversy that emerges cyclically around the anthem and the summons of God

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