Orthodox priest makes unorthodox request for nudist beach in Crimea

Strip down for summer in Crimea, where a Russian Orthodox priest is calling for the opening of a nudist beach.

With temperatures soaring on the annexed Crimean peninsula, many are resorting to flaunting rather more bare skin than church official Georgy Kunitsyn would like to see.

According to The Moscow Times, the priest told Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that he had come up against “a terrible problem” while on a beach in the resort town of Yevpatoria.

“I saw a group of undressed people. They were sunbathing on a public beach and seemed to have no moral qualms about it,” he complained, noting that he felt forced to call the police to “restore the public order”, after his comments to the sunbathers were ignored.

Despite his disapproval of public nudity, he is now calling for the local government to open a designated nudist beach.

“The Church has a negative attitude to nudism because it is concerned about the moral values of society,” the priest explained . “But since there are people who hold this philosophy, the logical thing is to give them a place where they can rest in whatever way they want, but not in public spaces!”

The local government has vowed to take steps to make this proposition a reality.

“This issue must be solved, but with tolerance,” said the deputy head of Yevpatoria’s local government, Valery Batuk, “That way we can still be a modern resort, despite this spicy situation!”

Source: The Moscow Times