Putin: patriotism devoting oneself to country's development is Russia’s national idea

Patriotism is Russia’s national idea, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the program ‘Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" a fragment of which was uploaded to the Instagram page of its presenter Pavel Zarubin.

"Yes, it’s patriotism, I think there can be nothing else here," Putin said when asked about the Russian national idea. But patriotism should not be spurious, he stressed.

According to the president, "patriotism means devoting oneself to the development of the country, its progress". "But this does not mean that we must keep clinging to our heroic past, we must look ahead, into our no less heroic and successful future, and this is the ticket to success," the Russian leader stressed.

Putin noted that the Russian people have no need of propaganda to preserve historical memory. As an example, he cited the Immortal Regiment march, in which people have been taking part for already several years answering the call of their hearts.

"This movement that has been taken up by millions of people across our country, the Immortal Regiment, means that the people need no propaganda whatsoever to keep the memory about their heroic forefathers, since this links us with them, and raises us in our own eyes if not to their level, then at least high enough for us to always remember the main thing," TASS cited the president as saying.

"Our heroes are always with us, in our hearts," Putin said, pledging that the march that failed to take part amid the coronavirus epidemic would be held later so that the people could pay tribute to the heroes.

In December 2019, President Putin addressed the topic of patriotism at his annual news conference, saying that he saw it as the only possible ideology of the modern democratic society.

"In my opinion, patriotism is the only possible ideology in the modern democratic society. Patriotism in the broadest and best sense," the Russian leader said back then. "It must be depoliticized and aimed to strengthen the inner framework of the Russian state," he stressed.