(MENAFN) Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of Russia's national security council, has apologized and distanced the council from "untruthful statements" regarding a Jewish organization made by one of his aides in a recent opinion article.

The religious community was incensed by allegations that Chabad-Lubavitch adherents viewed the rest of mankind to be inferior to themselves.

The claim, made by assistant Aleksey Pavlov, is his personal opinion and does not reflect the Russian government's position, Patrushev said in a statement to the Argumenty I Fakty (AiF) newspaper on Thursday. "Responsible action has been taken against the author," he said.

The top official was referring to an opinion article written by his aide that was published in the newspaper on Tuesday. He said that Ukraine was being lured purposefully into different types of paganism or cultism posing as mainstream faiths, and he accused several important Ukrainian public figures of leading the process.

Chabad-Lubavitch, a type of Hasidic Judaism that began over two centuries ago in what is now Vitebsk Region in Belarus but was mostly thrown out of the Soviet Union during the Bolshevik crackdown on religious rituals, was one of his vocal targets.

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