MOSCOW, March 11 (UPI) -- Russia's priests and its chief rabbi called on believers to come out and vote in the nation's presidential elections Sunday, RIA Novosti reported.
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, one of the heads of the Moscow Patriarchate's department for church foreign relations, called on Orthodox Christians to "do their civil duty and take part in voting," RIA Novosti said. "Every person must remember about his or her responsibility for the country's destiny, (and) for its choice of a correct historical path to follow," the archpriest said.
Patriarch Alexei II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, traditionally comes to the polls and he has called upon believers to do the same, Chaplin said.
Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar also urged the nation's Jews to vote Sunday. "Participation in democratic elections is not only a man's right but first of the fulfillment of God's commandments," he said.
