In response to questions from journalists, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, said the following:

“In his words of greeting addressed to some young Russian Catholics in the past few days, as is clear from the context in which he spoke them, the Pope intended to encourage young people to preserve and promote what is positive in Russia's great cultural and spiritual heritage, and certainly not to extol imperialistic logics and governmental personalities, cited to indicate certain historical periods of reference”.