On Tuesday, Patrushev even appeared to wade into American culture wars over critical race theory and gender identification, denouncing the “the so-called progressive models of education” that he said had become the norm in the United States and had no place in Russia.

“In the USA, for example, many people already say that in mathematics lessons one should sing and dance, because solving problems and equations depresses and discriminates against someone,” Patrushev said, praising Soviet education as the finest in world history.