According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, this year more than two and a half million of our compatriots attended Christmas services in churches and monasteries located in the country. “On the night of January 6-7, about 11 thousand solemn services dedicated to the feast of the Nativity of Christ were held on the territory of the Russian Federation in more than 5.7 thousand settlements,” said Irina Volk, an official spokesman for the RF Ministry of Internal Affairs. She also stressed that during the celebration of the Nativity of Christ in the territories where it took place, no violations of public order were recorded. Temples, monasteries, lavras during the Christmas services in 2019 were guarded by more than fifty thousand police officers, as well as 3800 National Guardsmen. In addition to them, law enforcement was provided by three and a half thousand employees of private security companies, ten thousand vigilantes and 5.4 thousand members of Cossack organizations. The figure of 2.5 million people who came to celebrate Christmas this year is roughly equivalent to 2% of Russia's total population. It is interesting to note that the same number of Russians consider themselves to be churched people, regularly attend services and participate in Church Sacraments. In total, more than 80% of the country's population consider themselves Orthodox in Russia.
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