Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan told Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone that Muslims supported his words about the Holy Prophet Muhammad, the Kremlin press service stated on Monday.

"Imran Khan emphasized that the Russian president’s statements made during the annual press conference on December 23 [2021], relating to the inadmissibility of any action under the cover of freedom of expression that degraded the dignity of particular religious, national or social groups, received wide support from Pakistani society and the overall Islamic world," the statement reads.

The Kremlin pointed out that Putin also recalled that Russia had historically been a multinational and multi-confessional state where peoples of various religions, including Islam, could coexist and interact.
As a result of the talks, the Russian leader and the Pakistani prime minister agreed to resume contacts.

During his annual press conference last December, Putin said that insulting the Prophet Muhammad "violated the freedom of religion as well as the sacred feelings of people who profess Islam." The Russian leader also noted that such behavior "could trigger others, even more, acute extremist manifestations," recalling the terrorist attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris carried out after publishing some satirical drawings.