The letter addresses the inadmissibility of "theology" being added to the science fields list of the Higher Attestation Commission (VAK).
The religious movement "Natsyonalny Sobor" (Russian: Национальный собор) accused Vitaly Ginzburg of hate speech.
In this sense, an open letter to the President of the Russian Federation became an “information event” for discussing these and other issues related to the relationship between the church and society.
However, since 2012, in accordance with the order of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, the subject of "Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics [ru]" has been included in school curriculum as a federal component.
Since 2015, the Higher Certification Commission of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation has approved Theology as a new scientific specialty.
[7] In 2020 Vladimir Putin initiated the inclusion of God and "traditional" (patriarchal nationalistic[8]) values, including the priority of national laws over international agreements, in the Constitution of Russia.