Influential Moscow priest says Russia should restore the monarchy and appoint Putin emperor

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, an ultra orthodox Russian priest from Moscow has called on the country to reinstate the monarchy and name Vladimir Putin emperor, he said another option would be to bring back the Romanov dynasty, which was overthrown exactly a century ago in 1917.

While speaking at the launch of his new book, he said:

'We are a country with monarchic mentality. It doesn't matter that we don't now have formal monarchy, I think we can re-make it with Putin on top. Or else with somebody from the Romanov house, or with an elected person as head.'

He insisted:

 'While we don't have formal monarchy, we have monarchic understanding that Russia cannot be without a tsar. But this tsar must take advice from people, which is why having a nation is so important.' He said the constitution should be amended to allow for a monarchy.

The 48yr old celibate priest opposes teaching about contraception in sex education classes and last year called for girls to be allowed to wed at 14 and boys at 16, without parental permission.

'It would be good if by the age of 20 our women had several children and made their careers only after 30 or 40 once their children have grown up,' he said.

He argued that women who had abortions, and husbands or wives who committed adultery, or were convicted of corruption 'should be condemned by everyone and in some cases deprived of property rights.'

So-called 'good families with multiple children should leave big cities because such places are full of sin and relocate to agricultural settlements allocated to them by the government', he demanded.

In one of his more incendiary statements, he said:

 'Of course God created women to bear and raise children. Feminism is a lie of the 20th century.'