­In Moscow, on 26 January 2012, representatives from over 40 different countries convened the conference “World without Nazism”. A broad, authoritative representation came from the US. All the speakers had a common concern with the Holocaust memorial, a serious lesson, that the Holocaust would never again be repeated through national ardor and obsession, discrimination or xenophobia.

The conference seemed to be of concern to domestic extremist groups. I would have preferred to assess inter-state interventions, too, because thousands and thousands die each year as a result of the bombardment of democracy and freedom. How to evaluate “Anglo-Saxon” models of intervention? The new Goebbels of our time take advantage of sophisticated technology of information war and the most advanced weapons systems against specific groups or states.

According to Protestant tradition, material success gets explanation through God’s blessing. Therefore, according to this tradition, the political leaders and voters do not need to feel suspicious, but rather they can even be regarded as having a right and necessity to hold power over the other groups and states which have not reached a good social level. Could the grave memorial of the Holocaust teach something for these interventions – that states should intervene more decisively in another nation's struggle for democracy? Or could the Holocaust be seen as a warning against imperialism, such as the color revolutions and interventions that produce hundreds of thousands of deaths and serious injuries every year? These questions were in my mind in the middle of the Moscow conference. Of course, I had in my mind situation on Syria and Iran.

The speaker of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, brought examples of populist political groups and religious extremists.

"Democracy must be able to protect itself. Extremist groups want to win the young people over to their side. This tendency is very dangerous. The Red Army opened the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp and the people came back to life from hell”, Matvienko said. Many of my friends told to me they admired Matvienko’s speech.

The German ambassador Ulrich Brandenburg expressed his condolences on behalf of himself and of Germany to the victims of the holocaust and Nazi ideology. He pointed out that the hard lessons should already be learned and the Holocaust would never recur again in practice. Mufti Krganov spoke firmly against the extremism and populism which is used to stir up controversy and violence.

The head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, said that “remembering the Holocaust should not be a mere ritual, but people should start to think that the confrontations between nationalities would not come back again."

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin pointed out that all such developments which can lead to wars between nations should be stopped at an early stage. "You should talk a lot for co-operation between the nations."

According to Chaplin, those who want to incite a national controversy are taking advantage of the prevailing economic problems, while in reality their way is no solution to the problem. "No matter what your policy or philosophy, people need to understand that different nationalities should live in peace."

"Conflict is an unfortunate opportunity to destroy everything. We have experience that development can suffer after fighting." According to Chaplin, nowadays an alarming ideology has appeared, calling people to “the nationalist struggle for the good” – sometimes directly and sometimes in the name of "people's freedom."

Chaplin's performance arose from classic Christian faith, according to which racial and national separation is by no means justifiable. Archpriest Chaplin’s speech sounded astonishingly fresh. Unfortunately, some churches have not adhered to this ethos in their practices and traditions. For example, 70 years ago Nazi ideology dominated in the churches in Germany, the Baltic countries and Finland. Many of the churches still have not asked forgiveness for their old links with Nazi ideology. Certain students of the Nazi academies went on to become bishops and other great leaders in time of peace.

­The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.