The Province of Kuban in the Russian South, recently visited by Patriarch Kirill, is an area of wide-spreading Cossack organizations. In the talks of the Primate of the Russian Church with the regional top officials and clergy this social movement came under special attention.

– Our Cossacks are an advanced spiritual force that we take great care of”, - said the Provincial Governor Mr. Kondratyev, – Today Cossacks fervently maintain the Orthodox Christian faith. We have about 90 Cossack schools. Orthodox Christianity is taught in schools. Orthodoxy and Cossack people are merely inseperable, it is a matter of fact.

– From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank you for the words that have been said now, and, of course, for everything that is happening in Kuban, – said His Holiness Patriarch Kirill. – A very strong Christian Orthodox tradition, primarily expressed in the Cossacks, is preserved here. And today with a great joy I have celebrated the Divine service here, and also heard the Cossack choir singing folk chants.  So much vigor and might sounded in their voices, and I admit that nowhere else a choir could sound like this!

Source: http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/5940139.html