(Catherine's speech at the coronation...)
Catherine: Fellow Russians, what is God? When I came here, I stood by a lake and I felt God come out of the Russian mountains and shake me, change me, so I knew what I was, who to love. Russia. I will not constrain love, for it is eternal in all of us, and yet the expression of it unique and individual. What God asks all of us is different. I believe who each person's God is can be as individual. So today, I announce my first proclamation. No more shall we be a one-church country. People are free to worship as Muslim, Hindu, Jew even, or even not at all. God would not constrain our hearts, and nor shall I do Him the insult of doing it. I will not constrain people's love for a deity, for it traps their hearts in fear and I will not lead a land such as this. We may also all have beards again because that seemed like a confusing and trivial rule.
