Civil War in Ukraine: Western Empire vs Russia

[angelburst29]

I suspect, Pope Francis is behind this schism between the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Churches? The ancient secret hidden skeletons of child sexual abuse and prostitution within the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church is collapsing it's inner sanctuaries and institutions. Catholicism is in a death spiral and it wants to drag the Orthodox Religion - down with it?

Oct. 15, 2018 - Syrian patriarch calls for Orthodox world’s unity, slams ill-timed ‘autocephaly issue’
Syrian patriarch calls for Orthodox world’s unity, slams ill-timed ‘autocephaly issue’

Deliberating on the autonomy of churches is untimely at the moment since the Orthodox Church needs unity, Patriarch John X of Antioch and All East said on Monday.

"Why is it necessary to delve into the issues of autonomy or autocephaly right now, when what we need most is undivided and solid unity among all Orthodox Christians?" the patriarch emphasized on a visit to Belgrade.

"There is no doubt that the Orthodox Church should consider its problems at an assembly bringing together all heads of local churches," the press service of the Serbian Orthodox Church quoted the patriarch as saying on Sunday.

Earlier, Serbian Patriarch Irinej opined that new autocephalies should be created only with the consent of all local Orthodox churches, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk said. He cautioned that granting autocephaly to Ukraine would split the Orthodox Christian world.

A spokesman for the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople earlier said that its Holy and Sacred Synod had decided to reinstate the heads of two non-canonical churches in Ukraine, Filaret of the Kiev Patriarchate and Makariy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, to their hierarchical and priestly ranks. In addition, it announced plans to bring back the Kiev Metropolitanate under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and launch the process for granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church.

The Russian Orthodox Church, along with some Local Orthodox Churches, have excoriated these moves as hostile and illegitimate, warning that they could result in a profound schism within Orthodox Christianity.

* Oct. 15, 2018 - Belarusian president opposes split in Orthodox Christianity
Belarusian president opposes split in Orthodox Christianity


Oct. 16, 2018 - Turkish Orthodox Church urges criminal case against Ecumenical Patriarchate
Turkish Orthodox Church urges criminal case against Ecumenical Patriarchate

One of the reasons behind the lawsuit was the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople's decision to declare that Phanar was beginning the procedure of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church.

The Patriarchate of the Turkish Orthodox Church on Tuesday filed a lawsuit with the Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office to demand a criminal case be opened against the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople for violating Turkish laws and instigation fraught with a conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the Church’s spokeswoman, Sevgi Erenerol, told TASS.

"The political activity of the head of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and members of the Synod has gone beyond the bounds of religious duties and violates the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, by which he (the Patriarch) was left in Turkey for meeting the religious needs of the Greek minority in Istanbul and on the islands (in the Sea of Marmara), and the existing Turkish laws. This activity is instigative and can cause enmity and conflict between countries in our region, in particular, between Russia and Ukraine," Erenerol said.

According to the Turkish Orthodox Church’s spokeswoman, one of the reasons for filing the lawsuit was the September decision made by the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to declare that Phanar was beginning the procedure of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church.

"The head of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Bartholomew (birth name Dimitrios Arhondonis) is accused of committing crimes punishable under Turkey’s Criminal Code: instigation aimed at inciting hatred and hostility; negligence in performing religious duties; and instigation of a country to war," Erenerol said.

The Turkish Orthodox Church was established in 1922 under a government resolution. The authorities’ aim was to create a national Orthodox Church connected not with Greek Orthodoxy but with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It is not recognized as canonical by other local Orthodox churches.

The Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople met in session on October 9-11 to declare that it was beginning the procedure of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church. It canceled the 1686 decision on the transfer of the Kiev metropolitan diocese to the Moscow Patriarchate. Also, it lifted anathema from the heads of two uncanonical churches in Ukraine - Filaret, of the Kiev Patriarchate, and Makary, of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church. Besides, it declared the wish to return the Kiev Metropolitan Diocese to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In response, the Synod or the Russian Orthodox Church on October 15 made a decision to end eucharistic relations with Constantinople.


Oct. 16, 2018 - Constantinople unleashing havoc between local Orthodox Churches, Ukrainian clergy says
Constantinople unleashing havoc between local Orthodox Churches, Ukrainian clergy says

Archbishop Clement

Constantinople’s decision to revoke the 1686 Act confirming the Metropolitan of Kiev as part of the Moscow Patriarchate is wreaking havoc among local Orthodox Churches and encourages dissenters to pursue recognition in a non-canonical way, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), chairman of UOC's Synodal Information Department Archbishop Clement told TASS.

"Since now the Constantinople Patriarchate registers its right to cancel its decisions made some 300, 500 and 1,000 years ago, this will lead to complete chaos between local Orthodox Churches, because in the history of each local church, their canonical territories had been established due to many developments," Archbishop Clement said.

Revising history after so many years will spark a number of hotbeds of conflicts and disputes.

The Orthodox Churches fear that tomorrow, similar steps may be taken against the Antiochian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church or any other Orthodox Church, he noted.

"What the Constantinople Patriarchate showed us by its actions today is an incentive for many dissenters, for many unrecognized church organizations to seek recognition or legitimization in an absolutely unusual and non-canonical way," he stressed.

Instead of consolidation and finding a joint solution to the problems and challenges that Orthodoxy is facing, the Constantinople Patriarchate is "creating scores of local problems, which will force Orthodox Churches to sort out things between themselves." Meanwhile, "totally different forces will influence the minds and hearts of the Orthodox people," he explained.

On October 11, a Synod meeting of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople decided to "proceed with granting autocephaly (self-governance) to the Church of Ukraine. The Synod revoked a legally binding status of the 1686 letter, which empowered the Patriarch of Moscow to ordain the Metropolitan of Kiev. In addition, the Synod decided to re-establish the office of the Stavropegion of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Kiev, which means its head would be subordinate directly to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Moreover, the Synod lifted an anathema from the heads of two non-canonical churches in Ukraine - Filaret of the Kiev Patriarchate, and Makary of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church.

In response, on Monday the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church ruled to sever Eucharistic ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

 

[Konstantin]

“We are clarifying the information at the moment. Preliminary figures are 50 injured and 10 dead. Eight ambulance crews are working at the site and air medical services are involved,” the press-service for the Crimean Ministry of Health stated.

Eighteen People Dead, Up to 50 Injured Following Blast in Kerch, Russia (VIDEO)

A deadly blast has rocked a college in Crimea's Kerch, leaving at least 17 people dead and 50 more injured. The blast has been classified by the Russian Investigative Committee as a terrorist attack. According to eyewitnesses, it was an explosive device that went off on the first floor and gunfire was heard.

"I was driving by while on other business and heard an explosion. I stopped and saw that a crowd of people had begun gathering near the college. I approached to see what was going on. There was already a lot of law enforcement agencies, ambulances, traffic police, military personnel, firefighters… They carried away the victims," witness Alexander told Sputnik.

"There was no central entrance, it was taken out, and there were no windows on the first floor. Now, various rumors are circulating about what happened, whether it was a terrorist attack or gas explosion. There is plenty of evidence that it was not gas, but rather an explosive device," Alexander added.

Witness on Kerch Blast: There Was No Central Entrance, There Were No Windows

 

[angelburst29]

Nov. 1, 2018 - Russia introduces countermeasures against 322 Ukrainian citizens and 68 companies
Russia introduces countermeasures against 322 Ukrainian citizens and 68 companies

The list includes a number of acting Ukrainian government officials and businessmen.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a government decree introducing special economic measures against 322 Ukrainian citizens and 68 companies, the Government press service said on Thursday.

"Special economic measures are introduced in relation to individuals and legal entities of Ukraine, which include freezing non-cash funds, non-documentary securities and property in Russia and banning transfer of funds (withdrawal of capital) outside Russia. Sanctions will be extended to 322 individuals and 68 legal entities," the Russian government said.

The list of the sanctioned individuals includes the Ukrainian president’s son Alexei Poroshenko, Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, Head of Naftogaz of Ukraine Andrei Kobolev, Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Andrei Paruby, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Konstantin Yeliseyev, ultra-nationalists Oleg Tyagnibok and Dmitri Yarosh, ex-premier of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk, leader of the Batkivshchyna (Motherland) party Yulia Timoshenko.

These restrictions also are also being imposed on judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, lawmakers of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 8th convocation, major Ukrainian businessmen, officials of the presidential administration of Ukraine, heads of executive authorities and large Ukrainian companies, and legal entities controlled by Ukraine’s top businessmen, the statement said.

Ukraine’s chemical and mining enterprises make up the majority of the list of 68 legal entities that fell under the countersanctions. Among those are Azot, Dniproazot, Ukrhimenergo, Glikohim, Mezhdurechensk Mining and Processing Plant, United Mining-Chemical Company and its branches, and a number of other companies.

Moscow's countermeasures are aimed at countering Kiev’s unfriendly actions against Russian citizens and companies and can be lifted if Ukraine annuls its sanctions, the Russian government stated.

Thus, Russia’s countermeasures "are aimed at countering unfriendly actions against Russian citizens and legal entities from Ukraine and normalizing bilateral relations." "The Russian government reserves the right to cancel special economic measures if Ukraine abolishes its restrictive measures imposed on Russian citizens and legal entities," the government said.

Precautionary measures
The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia must steer Russian companies clear of any negative impact when slapping retaliatory measures against Ukraine.

"The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation should ensure a balance on commodity markets and prevent any negative impact from the special economic measures ... on the activities of Russian organizations," the government resolution published on the Russian government’s official website said.

According to the statement, the Russian government could issue temporary permits to authorize certain operations of companies under the restrictions.

According to the Russian Federal Customs Service, trade turnover between Russia and Ukraine in 2017 increased by 25.6% to $12.9 bln. Growth of mutual trade was observed in the first time since 2012. Thus, in 2017, Russian exports to Ukraine rose in all key product groups and imports grew in all product groups, with the exception of wood.

Russian-Ukrainian trade relations peaked in 2011, when the volume of mutual trade amounted to $50.6 bln. Since 2012, trade began to gradually decline and reached its bottom in 2016, dropping to $10.26 bln. Because of a prolonged decline in mutual trade, in 2017 Ukraine occupied only 14th place in Russia’s foreign trade. Whereas Russia, despite the sanctions introduced by Ukraine since 2014, according to the Ukrainian State Statistics Service, remains its main trading partner with a 12.4% share in foreign trade.

According to the data of the Russian Central Bank, direct investments by residents of Ukraine and Russia in each other’s economies has been on the decline since 2016. At the end of 2016, there was an inflow of direct investment to the tune of $270 mln from Ukraine to Russia. Similarly, Russian companies poured $3.4 bln into Ukraine, Ukraine’s investments in Russia amounted to $285 mln (+21%). At the same time, Russia's investments in Ukraine in the reporting period reached $3.4 bln (+10%).

Presidential decree
On October 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on special economic measures in response to the anti-Russian sanctions of Ukraine. The decree notes that this decision was made "in response to Ukraine’s unfriendly actions, which are contrary to the international law and imply introduction of restrictive measures against citizens and legal entities of the Russian Federation", adding that they were imposed "in order to protect national interests."

Prime Minister Medvedev clarified later, countersanctions "would not apply to Ukrainians in general," but will concern "only those Ukrainian citizens who harm the interests of the Russian Federation and take actions aimed at causing damage to Russia." The list will also include legal entities registered under the laws of Ukraine, which are in any way controlled by citizens under countersanctions.

Ukraine’s sanctions against Russia
In February 2014, Ukraine introduced sanctions against 1,228 individuals and 468 legal entities, including Russian government officials, politicians, CEOs, along with reporters, some Donbass residents, the Almaz-Antey concern, Gazprombank and Aeroflot.

In 2017, Ukraine also introduced sanctions against Russian internet and media companies, such as Mail.ru Group, Yandex, VKontakte and Odnoklassniki.

On June 21, 2018, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko signed a decree on expanding sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities. The updated list included six political parties of Russia: United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, the Rodina party, the Democratic Party of Russia, and the Agrarian Party of Russia. The list also includes the Central Election Commission and its head Ella Pamfilova, the Electoral Commission of Crimea and members of territorial commissions at various levels.


Nov. 1, 2018 - Kremlin says aim of Russian sanctions is to make Ukraine willing to improve relations
Kremlin says aim of Russian sanctions is to make Ukraine willing to improve relations

By imposing retaliatory sanctions on Ukraine, Moscow seeks to make Kiev show willingness to improve relations, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"We definitely hope that Ukraine will sooner or later show at least weak political willingness to improve relations with Russia. We don’t see it at the moment," he said, when asked whether Moscow expected retaliatory sanctions to change the Ukrainian authorities’ position.

Russia may remove retaliatory sanctions against Ukraine in case relations between the two countries improve, he added. When asked if Moscow could remove its sanctions on Kiev in case Ukraine lifted sanctions against Russia, Peskov said that it was possible. At the same time, the Russian presidential spokesman clarified conditions for the removal of Russia’s retaliatory restrictions. According to him, it may happen "if we reach a point in the near future where we start taking steps to improve ties and ease tensions in bilateral relations."

The Kremlin believes that Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko’s inclusion in Russia’s sanctions lists would be beyond all reason.

"Presidents are traditionally not included in sanctions lists. It would be a move beyond all reason," the Kremlin spokesman told journalists.


Nov. 1, 2018 - Putin blasts Russophobia, ‘crude nationalism’, overseas meddling in Orthodox religion
Putin blasts Russophobia, ‘crude nationalism’, overseas meddling in Orthodox religion

Putin voiced his regret over the fact that this trend was observed in many regions across the globe, including throughout the post-Soviet space.

Employing primitive nationalism and anti-Russian bias throughout the post-Soviet space in addition to meddling in church life are fraught with grave consequences, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a plenary meeting of the World Russian People’s Council.

"We can see what efforts are being undertaken today in order to remake the world, destroy civilizational values and those cultural and historical spaces, which have evolved for centuries. The aim is to create various faceless protectorates, because disunited peoples, deprived of their national memory and reduced to the status of vassals, are easier and more conducive to control and use as a bargaining chip for the benefit of their interests," he stressed.

Putin voiced his regret over the fact that this trend was observed in many regions across the globe, including throughout the post-Soviet space. "Both crude nationalism and Russophobic sentiment are being utilized, while unceremonious meddling in church life is being practiced," Putin said, adding that such a policy was dangerous and fraught with grave consequences.

"I am confident that only a united, consolidated society can stand up to the most serious historical challenges, achieve real breakthroughs and remarkable results, resist any external pressure, uphold sovereignty and strengthen our spiritual and historical kinship," the Russian president pointed out.


Nov. 1, 2018 - Traitors or Russian agents? Clergy caught in Ukraine Church row
Traitors or Russian agents? Clergy caught in Ukraine church row | Reuters


Ukrainian Orthodox church metropolitan Oleksandr conducts a Sunday service at the Preobrazhensky Cathedral in Kiev, Ukraine October 28, 2018. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

Priests like Metropolitan Oleksandr face a choice: join Ukraine's new independent church and be labeled a renegade by supporters of his own church, or stay away, and risk being branded a Russian agent.

It is a decision facing thousands of clerics as Ukraine prepares to sever ties to the Russian Orthodox Church going back to 1686.

For the Ukrainian authorities it is an essential step to tackling Russia’s malign influence on its soil, four years after Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people.

It may also help President Petro Poroshenko, who championed the split, shore up support in a tight election race next year.

But the move is opposed by the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church, which compared it to the Great Schism of 1054 that split western and eastern Christianity.

Metropolitan Oleksandr, a member of the traditionally dominant Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), wants to join the new church because of what he calls its poisonous association with the Russian state.

“We love Russians, we love Russia, but we don’t love those who have unleashed a war on the part of Russia and who are feeding it today,” he said in an interview.

He echoes critics who call his church a tool used by Moscow to justify Russian expansionism and support the separatists.

Oleksandr compares setting up the new church to removing a diseased body part by surgery. “The surgical method is painful, but it must be done in the end in order for the body to begin to recover,” the 41-year-old said.

His stance comes at a price.

The Moscow Patriarchate has labeled those wanting to join the new church as “schismatics”. A high-ranking official, Metropolitan Antoniy, said joining the new church would be a betrayal.

In May, the Moscow Patriarchate censured Oleksandr for “obscene” behavior and told him to stop making public statements that could lead his followers into temptation.

Separately a video, watched more than 100,000 times on YouTube, called him a “traitor” and portrayed him as corrupt, soft on gay rights and involved in the abduction of two nuns.

Oleksandr, who regularly puts up photos and videos of his services on Facebook, reposted the video to his 12,000 followers to show what his opponents were up to.

POLITICAL GAME
Ukraine in October secured approval to set up an independent church from the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul, the global spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians.

The next step is for Ukraine’s various church strands to meet to decide the make-up of the church and who will lead it.

The Russian Orthodox Church retaliated by breaking off all ties with Istanbul and accused the United States of engineering the split behind the scenes. President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday warned of “painful consequences”.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow called the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s support for an independent Ukrainian church “shameless”.

He said Orthodox unity could be preserved only through the “resistance of our people, our clergy, our episcopate, to every mean trick, to every heresy, to every schism”.

Ukraine and Russia trace their Orthodox Christian roots to Volodymyr the Great, the prince whose baptism in 988 in Kiev led to the christianization of the region known as the “Kievan Rus”.

The Moscow Patriarchate, which is aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church, earlier dominated in Ukraine but has been challenged by a rival known as the Kiev Patriarchate formed after the 1991 break-up of the Russian-dominated Soviet Union.

Support for the Kiev Patriarchate swelled after the annexation of Crimea. It supports church independence and Ukraine’s closer integration with the West.

Oleksandr estimates between 40-70 percent of Moscow Patriarchate churches will join the new church, though his parishioners have mixed views. Some support it, while others, like Anna Trofimova, oppose it as a “political game”.

Archbishop Kliment, spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), said in an interview that only a tiny fraction of his church’s believers wanted to switch across.

Asked about the attacks on Oleksandr, Kliment said his church was itself the victim of a smear campaign.

As an example, he cited Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin’s statement that his church had no place in Ukraine and suggested it root out Russian agents in its ranks.

Kliment said support for independence had not risen but the authorities were pushing for it “because in six months there will be presidential elections.”

 

[thorbiorn]

This defence of the US/EU/NATO expansion project into Ukraine costs money: EU lost over €100bn because of its own anti-Russia sanctions – Lavrov That is quite a bit, but is somebody getting tired of bending over to the US government?
The article Macron wants ‘real European army’ to combat Russian threat & end reliance on US ends:

NATO is 70 percent American and without the US NATO will not exist, frankly speaking.

So the French idea to ‘europeize NATO’ is yet to show its viability, and whether or not the US allows it is debatable too.

​

Macron’s rhetoric has less to do with actually changing the way Europe defends itself and more to do with the upcoming European Parliament elections next year, Osipov believes. The election is expected to strengthen the positions of populist and right-wing forces, which will be contrary to Macron’s integration agenda.

And before that there was:

Sergey Fedorov, an expert on French affairs, from Moscow’s Institute of Europe agreed, pointing out that even without Britain the US-dominated NATO will have its advocates in the EU, including Poland and the three Baltic states. He added that even countries less known as conduits of American interests in Europe prefer buying US-made weapons rather than invest in competing European projects. For example, Belgium and the Netherlands both recently sealed deals for American fighter jets.

But since when are Belgium and the Netherlands not conduits of American interests in Europe? Belgium hosts the NATO HQ and the Netherlands have played along very nicely on several occasions, like the MH17 affair.

 

[Ca.]

Russia Targets Ukrainian Officials With New Sanctions
Moscow announced on Thursday it was imposing financial sanctions on hundreds of Ukrainian individuals and dozens of businesses by freezing their assets, according to Deutsche Welle.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree which detailed the sanctions that were described as "counter-sanctions" made in response to similar Ukrainian measures that targeted Russian citizens and companies for the continued presence of Russian forces in Eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in 2014

The Russian decree targeted 322 individuals and 68 businesses, including Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's son Olexiy, presidential contender Yulia Tymoshenko, the head of Ukraine’s SBU security service Vasil Hrytsak, interior minister Arsen Avakov, and billionaire tycoon Victor Pinchuk.

The sanctions also targeted several prominent companies, including iron ore pellet producer Ferrexpo, poultry producer MHP, and the largest sunflower oil exporter from Ukraine Kernel.

The decree stated the individuals and companies would have their financial and property assets frozen in Russia and would not be allowed to repatriate them to Ukraine.

Moscow said the measures could be revoked if Kiev agreed to lift similar sanctions made against Russian individuals and corporations.

The decree signed by Medvedev said the sanctions were a response to Ukraine's "unfriendly efforts" against Russian citizens.

"To be honest, the Kremlin sanctions are of little concern to me," Tymoshenko, a 2019 presidential hopeful, said on her Facebook page. "I don't have any businesses — neither here (in Ukraine) nor there.

The sanctions also targeted the former leader of the Ukrainian far-right organization Right Sector Dmitro Yarosh, the CEO of Ukraine's energy giant Naftogaz, Andriy Kobolyev and billionaire owner of Interpipe Victor Pinchuk.

In 2015, Ukraine's national security and defense council retaliated for the Russian support in eastern Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea by imposing sanctions on 1,124 Russian nationals and 156 "legal entities," but the list has also grown since then.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Moscow would consider revoking the sanctions if Ukraine took similar action.

"If we reach this moment in when we start taking measures to normalize and de-escalate tensions between our two countries in the foreseeable future."

The Ukrainian government said it would analyze the effects of the sanctions in the coming weeks since it's unclear how large an impact the measures would have on the Ukrainian economy.

Ukraine’s neo-Nazis trained US white supremacists – FBI
The neo-Nazi Azov battalion in Ukraine has participated in “training and radicalizing” US-based white supremacists, the FBI said in a recent indictment of several California men involved in the Charlottesville violence.

Four members of the “Rise Above Movement” (RAM), described by the FBI as a “white supremacy extremist group” were indicted for conspiracy to riot over the August 2016 violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, among other things. In the affidavit, signed by FBI Special Agent Scott Bierwirth, 28-year-old Robert Rundo is said to have traveled to Germany, Italy and Ukraine in the spring of 2018.

Rundo allegedly met with Olena Semenyaka, one of the officials of the National Corps - a political wing of the Azov Battalion.

“Based on my training and experience, I know that the Azov Battalion is a paramilitary unit of the Ukrainian National Guard which is known for its association with neo-Nazi ideology and use of Nazi symbolism, and which is believed to have participated in training and radicalizing United States-based white supremacy organizations,” says Bierwirth, who was an officer in the US Army prior to joining the FBI.

The Azov Battalion started as a paramilitary group comprised of right-wing nationalists but is now part of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. It has patronage in the Ukrainian government, with its former commander Andrey Bilitsky now serving as member of the national parliament.
The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that members of the Azov Battalion were allegedly involved in various crimes during their deployment to fight anti-government forces in the east of Ukraine. These included looting, unlawful detention, rape and torture.

READ MORE: Ukraine’s right-wing Azov Battalion stages own version of Nazis’ ‘Cathedral of Light’ ceremony

Azov is by far the most notorious of the “volunteer battalions” established in 2014, after several regions of Ukraine refused to submit to the new government following a US-backed violent overthrow of the president in Kiev. Its logo features the Wolfsangel (Wolf’s Hook), which the Nazi party originally used as its symbol, and the Schwarze Sonne (Black Sun), a symbol created by the SS leader Heinrich Himmler and representing twelve “sig runes” of the notorious Nazi organization

https://twitter.com/x/status/1060315677490200576

While the US Congress tried in 2015 to outlaw providing any US aid to Azov, the Obama administration got rid of that provision in the 2016 defense bill. In any case, by that point the unit had already been officially incorporated into the National Guard. It is currently eligible for “lethal assistance” authorized by the Trump administration in December 2017.

Though it has long been known that Azov and other Ukrainian militias have attracted volunteers with neo-Nazi sympathies from around the world, this is the first known instance in which the US government has claimed the militia is involved in training and radicalizing American extremists.

Russia's rep. statement at UN Security Council on the situation in Ukraine

Nov 5, 2018 / 10:13

https://twitter.com/x/status/1059817864641814529

https://twitter.com/x/status/1059802704657203200

https://twitter.com/x/status/1060041657557680133

Who Will Save Ukraine’s Dying Refineries? | OilPrice.com
Oct 01, 2018,

 

[angelburst29]

Nov. 6, 2018 - Kremlin says Moscow believes 'extremely important' who will lead Donbass republics
Kremlin says Moscow believes 'extremely important' who will lead Donbass republics

Peskov refused to answer questions about Russia’s recognition of the results of the upcoming elections.

Moscow’s influence on the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) is not boundless and it is important for it who will be at the head of these republics, Russian President’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday commenting on the upcoming elections in the DPR and LPR.

"Moscow does have influence on the leaders of these republics but this influence is not boundless," he said, adding that "it is extremely important" who will be at the heads of these republics.

The DPR and LPR will elect their heads and parliaments on November 11, 2018. However, Kiev and a number of Western countries have refused to recognize the republics’ right to hold these polls.

As many as 408 polling stations will be opened next Sunday in the DPR. Contenders for the post of the republic’s head are Denis Pushilin, Elena Shishkina, Roman Khramenkov, Vladimir Medvedev and Roman Yevstifeyev. Two public movements - the Donetsk Republic and Free Donbass - will vie for seats in the republic’s People’s Council, or legislatures.

Peskov refused to answer questions about Russia’s recognition of the results of the upcoming elections. He said it’s better to wait for these results at first.

"It is not right of Ukraine to say that the elections in the DPR and LPR run counter to the Minsk accords," Peskov said. "I don’t think it should because the deplorable situation with the implementation of the Minsk package has been triggered by Kiev’s unwillingness to implement the Minsk agreements that cannot be interpreted in any way as they are committed to paper unequivocally and are signed by President [of Ukraine Pyotr] Poroshenko among others."

"The situation has been seriously aggravated by the tragic developments, numerous terror attacks in Donbass against those who now stand at the head of the republic," he added.


Nov. 11, 2018 - Foreign observers arrived at Donetsk - news agency
Foreign observers arrived at Donetsk - news agency

Ukraine and certain Western countries refused to recognize the right of republics to hold elections.

© Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS

Foreign observers for attendance at elections of heads and parliament members in the proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) arrived at Donetsk on Saturday, the Central Election Commission of DPR said on Saturday.

"Foreign observers at elections of the Head and the People’s Council of DPR arrived at Donetsk. Political and public figures from many countries are among them," the Election Commission said in the statement quoted by the Donetsk News Agency.

Members of the Federation Council and the State Duma are in the delegation from Russia. Representatives of Abkhazia, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, France, and South Osetia also came to Donetsk.

Proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics will hold elections of heads of republics and parliament members on November 11. Ukraine and certain Western countries refused to recognize the right of republics to hold elections.


Nov 10, 2018 - POPOV: UKRAINE IS PLANNING TO ATTACK DONETSK TOMORROW, ELECTION DAY
POPOV: UKRAINE IS PLANNING TO ATTACK DONETSK TOMORROW, ELECTION DAY - Fort Russ

Ukraine is preparing an invasion tonight on the eve or during the elections in, the DPR and LPR. The media of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics have received information about chemical attacks being prepared by Ukraine against the DPR and LPR on the day of the election of the heads and deputies of the People’s Soviets of the Republic (11 November). [FRN has reported on this part previously. -ed]

Supposedly, specialists of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and their chemical equipment team were preparing for the organization of terrorist acts in concert with the elections taking place tomorrow in the Donbass. However, the development of events can go on an even more dangerous scenario. A full scale invasion.

As my sources from the Donetsk People’s Republic (three independent sources connected with the military and political circles of the republic) tell me, Ukraine is preparing an invasion in the territory of the Donbass republics. Practically all the available military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a large number of forces are concentrated on the borders of the republics. In particular, all available rocket systems have been brought in.

According to the information of my source from the military circles of the DPR, the Ukrainian side has several thousand soldiers of the NATO countries. Military instructors of Western countries seriously increased the ability of the Ukrainian army. In addition, highly professional units of NATO commandos act against the armies of the DPR and the LPR. My sources from the DPR-LPR believe that the Ukrainian invasion will begin during or immediately after the election day of November 11th.

Apparently, Ukrainians use elections as a pretext, declaring them a violation of the Minsk agreements. At the same time, Ukraine itself failed to fulfill a single point of the agreements and, most importantly, did not stop bombarding the territory of the republics. However, the official opinion of the West will be entirely on the side of Ukraine. I believe that the occupation of the republics of Donbass by Ukraine is not the ultimate goal of the invasion.

The strategic goal is to try to repeat the South Ossetian scenario in new conditions and draw Russia into conflict on the territory of Ukraine. In order to then accuse Moscow of occupying the territory of this country. That, in turn, will lead to freezing of the Russian-European contacts and, in particular, to a halt in the Nord Stream 2 project. At the same time, the United States will receive an excellent opportunity to deploy new military bases and armaments in Europe, including missile systems. To this end, Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Treaty on the limitation of short-range and medium-range missiles – the INF Treaty.

Europe is turning into a potential continent of war. This may all start on November 11, 2018.

 

[angelburst29]

November 11, 2018 - Separatist-held Regions hold Elections in Eastern Ukraine
Separatist-held regions hold elections in eastern Ukraine | Reuters


People vote during leadership elections in rebel-controlled Donetsk, Ukraine November 11, 2018. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

Rebel-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine hold leadership elections on Sunday in the shadow of a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people and poisoned relations between Ukraine and Russia.

Ukraine and its international backers have lined up to condemn the vote as a sham manipulated by the Russian authorities and in violation of a 2015 Minsk ceasefire agreement. The United States urged voters to boycott.

Backed by Moscow, separatist rebels seized territory in eastern Ukraine after pro-Western protests toppled President Viktor Yanukovich in February 2014 and Russia annexed Crimea a month later.

The United States called the elections a charade to give false legitimacy to Moscow-approved leaders already installed in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. It announced new sanctions on Russia on Thursday.

“These particular elections are a mockery, really, of the idea of genuine elections that need to be held,” Kurt Volker, Washington’s envoy to the Ukraine conflict, told reporters on a conference call on Thursday.

“They are under conditions of occupation, where there is no freedom of expression, no freedom of movement, no freedom of campaigning, and generally therefore no freedom of choice for the people in electing candidates for legitimate local leadership positions,” he said.

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko called the elections “illegal and represent yet another example of Russian subversive activity.”

Russia disputes that the elections violate the Minsk agreement.

“Actually, the deplorable situation with the implementation of the Minsk package was provoked by Kiev’s unwillingness to fulfill the Minsk agreements,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The Donetsk region’s acting head, Denis Pushilin, is running in Sunday’s election after his predecessor Alexander Zakharchenko died in an explosion in August. Russia pointed the finger at Ukraine, while Kiev’s security service blamed internal fighting “between the terrorists and their Russian sponsors”.

Several former separatist leaders have fled the Donbass area, saying they feared for their lives after their comrades turned on them. Other leading separatist commanders have been killed in unexplained circumstances.

“Pushilin is a soap bubble, there are completely different people behind him, this is Moscow,” a former separatist leader Alexei Alexandrov told Reuters.

Ukraine-based analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said Russia was using the elections to give legitimacy to the region’s leaders and may try to turn the fighting into a frozen conflict with the two breakaway regions as protectorates.

Peskov acknowledged Russia had influence on the region’s leaders but said “it is not unlimited.”


Nov 10, 2018 - ‘Collapse Will Continue’: Ukrainian Parliamentarian Rightly Predicts Unpleasant Future For the Country
'Collapse Will Continue': Ukrainian Parliamentarian Rightly Predicts Unpleasant Future For the Country - Fort Russ

Even Ukrainian MP’s are coming forward to speak a modicum of truth to power, even if perhaps only as election season rapidly approaches in the impoverished capitalist state. Soon, in Ukraine there will be no economy or social protection, and the state itself will collapse because of the lack of willingness of politicians to take responsibility for re-establishing peace in the country, said a Ukrainian MP.

Such a view was expressed by the Supreme Rada MP (Ukrainian parliament) Natalia Korolevskaya to the NewsOne television channel.

“I believe that currently the future president of Ukraine has to fulfill a single task – to restore peace to the country and after that, he can leave if he wants. This collapse will continue in the future,” he complained.

She added that Ukrainian politicians only advocate peace in the country in words, but take no real action to achieve it.

“All current politicians shout, after having read sociologists, that they advocate peace, but no one presents a real plan on how to achieve it. And no one wants to take responsibility for the return of peace,” she said.

In April 2014, Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk and the People’s Republic of Lugansk, which declared independence after the coup in February 2014. According to the latest UN data, more than ten thousand people were victims of the conflict.

The issue of resolving the situation in Donbass is being discussed, including during meetings of the contact group in Minsk which, since September 2014, has already adopted three documents regulating measures to mitigate the conflict. However, even after the truce agreements, the shootings continue.

This also comes as recently, the deputy of the Supreme Rada (Ukrainian parliament) Igor Mosiychuk threatened Russia with occupation and territorial division of the country.

The statement was published by the parliamentarian himself on his Facebook account.

The Ukrainian politician presented his own version of history, saying that in 1612 Moscow was liberated not from the Polish invaders but from the Ukrainians. In his words, two-thirds of the troops expelled from the Russian capital were composed of Ukrainian Cossacks.

In this connection, the deputy said that Kiev can take the same measures and, in the near future, occupy more Russian cities.

“History repeats itself. Modern Moscow [old name of Russia] must expect a new occupation from Ukraine,” he said, adding that only this scenario can satisfy the “nation of warriors”.

It is not for the first time that Ukrainian politicians make hostile statements about Russia. Recently, the same Ukrainian deputy Igor Mosiychuk threatened to destroy the Crimean Bridge. Thus, in May he called the construction of “enemy infrastructure” and stressed that he would personally participate in its destruction if it were Minister of Defense.

The Crimea reunited with Russia in 2014 after a referendum in which more than 96% of residents voted for reunification. However, Kiev still considers the peninsula as Ukrainian territory. The Russian authorities have repeatedly stressed that reunification occurred in a legal manner, in accordance with international law.

 

[Voyageur]

{from article}

The Ukrainian politician presented his own version of history, saying that in 1612 Moscow was liberated not from the Polish invaders but from the Ukrainians. In his words, two-thirds of the troops expelled from the Russian capital were composed of Ukrainian Cossacks.

Then again, this version might more be in alignment: The history of Ukraine as an artificial state

The lands of Rus', in what is now Ukraine, were occupied by Poland-Lithuania for around three centuries, between the mid-14th century, to the mid-17th. In 1654, most of so called Ukraine save for its western part was reunited with Russia.

How was the name Ukraine used in history?

It is important to understand how this name Ukraine came to be. It must be said that this word has the traditional meaning of "Borderland", similar to the Germanic term "Mark", for example, in the name Denmark (mark of the Danes).

Hypatian Codex

It carries the meaning of a territory on the edge, the border, or the outback of a country or region.

The oldest mention of the word "Ukraine" is found in the Hypatian Codex, also called the Ipatiev Chronicle, dating to 1187 the Year of Our Lord.

The 0 uses the term Ukraine, to refer to the steppe on the borderland of the Principality of Pereyaslavl, one of the territories of Rus'.
[...]
Kozak Charter

The word Ukraine retains the casual meaning of "borderland" hundreds of years later, in the charter of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich (1593) to the Don Cossacks, and Zaporozhian hetman Hrishtop Kositsky. The later talks about defending the Slavic lands from the tatars, talking about the need to defend the Donets and our ukraines (plural).

In Russian literature until the end of the nineteenth century, the word "krajina" was still used in the sense of "the limit that the land is on the edge".

How does "ukraine" (украина) became a proper name?

The key is to remember that modern Ukraine is a combination of several historical territories, primarily three, Galicia in the West, Malorossia in the center, and Novorossia in the south-east.


Cultural distribution in Ukraine territory
While all Ukrainians lands were once indistinguishable part of Rus', they became divided after the Mongol invasions. Malorossia was reunited with Russia in 1654 under Hetman Bogdan Z. Khmelnitsky, and Novorossia had yet to be built, but Galicia, Western Ukraine, remained controlled by Poland-Lithuania.

Eventually, Galicia fell under the influence and control of Austro-Hungary, being absorbed into their Empire.
[...]
Some of these regions were part of Kievan Rus' and the principalities it divided into, like Malorossia (Little Russia) and Galicia.

New Russia, however, was not part of Old Rus', hence the obvious name "New Russia", as it was settled by the Russian Empire on land occupied by Tatars and Turks in the 18th century, and it was not part of Rus', nor the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, nor the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Both Little Russia and Galicia were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, however Galicia was part of Austro-Hungary, unlike Little and New Russia.

Little Russia was reunited with Russia before New Russia was founded, however it had been in the Commonwealth longer.

The main point is all of these regions were part of different states, however none of them went by the name Ukraine. This is entirely a modern invention.
[...]
The issue is everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but no one is entitled to their own facts. Ukrainians Nationalists are willing to rewrite history by changing the facts on the ground with blood. They still astonishingly fail to realize they are waging war on their own soil, against their own citizens.

et cetera...

 

[thorbiorn]

There was an article on a Russian news site EurAsia Daily written by a person based in Tbilisi (
Irakli Chkheidze (Tbilisi), specially for Colossal) who reports and reflects on an interview given by, still very active behind the scenes former General Secretary of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen to a Polish Newspaper. The main point is that Belarus has been selected as a future target for NATO interference. Below is an excerpt of the rather long article. The translation of the machine is not exceptional, but hope you get a gist of the message.

12 Nov 2018 15:37
In the footsteps of Georgia and Ukraine: NATO in the fight against Russia chooses a new target
[...]
It seems that now the main target becomes the Republic of Belarus. And now, former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in an interview with Polish radio said that Belarus, under certain reforms in the future could play an interesting role due to its geographical position between Europe and Russia. [...]
It would be interesting to know what "certain reforms" have to hold Belarus to play this very "interesting role"?
[...]
[...]"There is no doubt that Putin will put pressure on Belarus. We have already seen how Russia is pushing local authorities to place the base and to ensure the presence of Russian forces in Belarus on a permanent basis", — the former Secretary General of the Alliance. [...]

In this 2400 + post long thread Belarus has been mentioned. Perhaps one day Belarus needs its own thread. When NATO comes into a country it is all freedom and democracy, when people defend their own values, it is oppression. I tried to find the source for the quoted interview, but I can't access the link to the audio from Polish Radio on Q&A with Anders Fogh Rasmussen 07.11.2018 12:00 wich is a possible source.

 

[angelburst29]

There was an article on a Russian news site EurAsia Daily written by a person based in Tbilisi (Irakli Chkheidze (Tbilisi), specially for Colossal) who reports and reflects on an interview given by, still very active behind the scenes former General Secretary of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen to a Polish Newspaper. The main point is that Belarus has been selected as a future target for NATO interference. Below is an excerpt of the rather long article. The translation of the machine is not exceptional, but hope you get a gist of the message.

In this 2400 + post long thread Belarus has been mentioned. Perhaps one day Belarus needs its own thread. When NATO comes into a country it is all freedom and democracy, when people defend their own values, it is oppression. I tried to find the source for the quoted interview, but I can't access the link to the audio from Polish Radio on Q&A with Anders Fogh Rasmussen 07.11.2018 12:00 wich is a possible source.

The English version of EurAsia is here: US/EU Archives - Eurasia Future

I generally check it out - every few days. The site only generates a few articles, now and then. I was unable to locate the article you described above? There is one recent article on Belarus.

2018-11-06 - Belarus Just Threw Russia Under The Bus
Belarus Just Threw Russia Under The Bus - Eurasia Future

While some of President Lukashenko’s recent statements reaffirmed his country’s military and political alliance with Moscow, others threw it under the bus by dismissing the regular talk in Russia about a possible base in Belarus as baseless, implying that his neighbor exports hybrid threats to the West through its territory, and expressing his eagerness to strengthen relations with the US and NATO.

Long regarded as Russia’s closest ally because of its membership in the so-called “Union State” as well as the CSTO and Eurasian Union, Belarus is now “balancing” between its patron and the West as it seeks to reap the best benefits from both of them. The author foresaw this development three and a half years ago when he warned about it in an article for The Saker titled “Are Armenia And Belarus Wandering Westward?”, which was followed by other pieces published elsewhere such as “Is Belarus On The Brink Of Pivoting Away From Russia?”, “Poland’s Trying To Break The Russian-Belarusian Bond With A US Base”, and the recently released one about how “A Polish Canal Might Make All The Difference In Belarus’ ‘Balancing’ Act”. The gist is that there were clear indications that President Lukashenko wanted to normalize relations with the West at the expense of Russia’s economic and other interests in exchange for sanctions relief and reassurances that it wouldn’t be attacked by NATO, whether directly like what happened to Libya or indirectly through a “EuroMaidan”-like Hybrid War such as what took place in Ukraine.

Is Russia Really Exporting Hybrid Threats To Europe?

It therefore shouldn’t be surprising that Lukashenko just threw Russia under the bus in order to please his new ‘Western partners’, believing that his ‘neutral rhetoric’ is key to maintaining his “balancing” act between East and West. TASS quoted the Belarusian leader as saying the following remarks on Sunday:

“I told [the Western countries]: see value in Belarus, do not impose sanctions against us. Both drugs, and mobsters, and radioactive elements, and illegal migration, all that goes to the west through us, and we tackle them at our own expense.”

Whether he meant to or not, Lukahsneko implied that Russia is exporting “drugs, mobsters, radioactive elements, and illegal migration” to the West by not stopping them before they reach Belarus’ borders and beyond, thus portraying his country as Europe’s pivotal unconventional security partner that voluntarily manages these hybrid threats in order to save everyone else from ruin.

In a sense, this is eerily just like how Gaddafi presented Libya’s significance to European security right before his ‘Western partners’ backstabbed him.

Military “Balancing”

That’s not all that Lukashenko said, though, because he then expanded on Belarus’ regional security vision while speaking to some American analysts on Tuesday. Addressing the long-running rumors of a Russian military base on his country’s territory, he explained that:

“This is a far-fetched issue…We have a military and political alliance with Russia and it makes no difference whatsoever if a military base is established here or not. We are not establishing it because we don’t need it here. According to our military and defense plan with Russia, we will fulfill these functions ourselves. That’s because we are on our own land. I once again emphasize that there aren’t any [foreign military] bases not because we want to win somebody’s favor. No, we are just capable of fulfilling the functions in line with the treaty with Russia.”

He added, however, that his country “would ask Russia to ensure its security” if it’s ever needed, such as undertaking joint responses to the prospective “Fort Trump” in Poland, which could include Belarus’ CSTO ally selling it more arms:

“If NATO goes ahead with its policy of attempts to intimidate us [or takes action], such as the deployment of a military base in Poland, or if there are some other moves, then we will need more effective weapons, missiles in the first place.”

But, he underlined, he doesn’t want to see a Russian base on his territory, which is something that he is “strongly against”:

“For now I do not even see any need for inviting the forces of other states, including Russia, to the territory of Belarus, for performing our functions under the treaty with Russia, because we are strongly against any deployment of an air base…Why should we expose ourselves to a potential aggressor by placing a base in the forefront? One or two missiles – and the runway will be blown up.”

Whether one agrees with his stance or not, it’s difficult to call it anything other than “balanced” regardless of the self-interested reasons behind it, but that’s not the case with the other comments that he said which have yet to be reported by TASS but were expectedly covered by “Radio Free Europe”.

Throwing Russia Under The Bus To Please The Necons

The US-funded information outlet published an article that revealed the other details of his discussion with the American analysts and proves just how much Belarus threw Russia under the bus:

“We are certain that regional security [in Europe] depends on the cohesion of the region’s states and preservation of the United States’ military and political role in the European arena…Belarus is eager to build an equal dialogue with all sides via reinstating normal ties with the United States, supporting good neighborly ties with the European Union, and widening partnership with NATO.”

It should also be said in connection with this that the analysts that he hosted came from neoconservative “think tanks” linked to the US’ permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”). As proudly reported by the publicly funded Belarusian Telegraph Agency:

“The delegation includes experts and executives of the Center for European Policy Analysis, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, RAND Corporation, and the Jamestown Foundation. While in Belarus the U.S. experts will visit the Defense Ministry, the Minsk Suvorov Military School, the Hi-Tech Park, and the Belarusian State Museum of History of the Great Patriotic War.”

RT exposed CEPA in a rare op-ed from the outlet itself (with no specific author byline) titled “American defense contractors think you have been brainwashed”, which proved that the Warsaw-based entity functions as one of the US military-industrial complex’s lobbying arms. The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement is dedicated to former Vice President Joe Biden, who was instrumental in supporting “EuroMaidan”, thus making the hegemonic goals that it works for self-explanatory.

The RAND Corporation and Jamestown Foundation need no introduction as some of the “deep state’s” most influential “think tanks”, meaning that Lukashenko was cavorting with the brains behind America’s foreign policy formulation as part of his supposed “balancing” act, which might in hindsight have just been a euphemism for thinly disguising what increasingly appears to be a pivot to the West when considering how positively he now views the US and NATO’s roles in Europe.

Concluding Thoughts

Nobody should be shocked that Belarus threw Russia under the bus in order to please a bunch of neoconservative experts from the US because the writing was on the wall for at least three and a half years already even though many Alt-Media outlets were in utter denial over this—or worse, deliberately deceiving their audiences. Belarus has yet to decisively pivot towards the West, but it’s probably taking a page or two out of Armenia’s playbook by hoping that it too can soon enter into trade negotiations with the EU in spite of its formal membership in the Eurasian Union. That, however, could only occur after the West lifts all of its sanctions against the country, which probably won’t happen unless it sticks with its new “balancing” strategy of sacrificing its Russian “ally’s” economic and other interests in pursuit of this long-sought “reward”, though whether or not it ultimately receives it is of course an entirely different matter.


2018-09-13 - A Polish Canal Might Make All The Difference In Belarus’ “Balancing” Act
A Polish Canal Might Make All The Difference In Belarus’ “Balancing” Act - Eurasia Future

(Comment: In this article, it points out this site which is George Soros funded - The Soros- and NED-funded “EurasiaNet” outlet - not to be confused with the above site - Eurasiafuture.com)

 

[thorbiorn]

The English version of EurAsia is here: US/EU Archives - Eurasia Future

I generally check it out - every few days. The site only generates a few articles, now and then. I was unable to locate the article you described above? There is one recent article on Belarus.

2018-11-06 - Belarus Just Threw Russia Under The Bus
Belarus Just Threw Russia Under The Bus - Eurasia Future

[...]

Thank you for sharing, perhaps they don't bother too much about translation between languages. From the articles you posted it appears Europe is headed for more instability. At any rate in ten years both Russia and Belarus will have a new leadership, perhaps that is what the Western elites are setting their hopes for? On Eurasia future I found a headline: Turkey Warns That PKK Terror Group Controls 80% of Europe's Drug Trade - Eurasia Future Remarkable how unofficially US supported groups make their earnings, which just happen to further destabilize the societies they operate in, which just happens to be what the US appears to be fundamentally interested in.

 

[angelburst29]

Thank you for sharing, perhaps they don't bother too much about translation between languages. From the articles you posted it appears Europe is headed for more instability. At any rate in ten years both Russia and Belarus will have a new leadership, perhaps that is what the Western elites are setting their hopes for? On Eurasia future I found a headline: Turkey Warns That PKK Terror Group Controls 80% of Europe's Drug Trade - Eurasia Future Remarkable how unofficially US supported groups make their earnings, which just happen to further destabilize the societies they operate in, which just happens to be what the US appears to be fundamentally interested in.

"perhaps they don't bother too much about translation between languages."

The article you Posted was dated Nov. 12th, the same day it appeared on their main site - so maybe, it wasn't translated yet into other languages? Another possibility, something I have often noticed with the Sputnik website, an article might appear on the Russian site but not featured on their English language sister-site. Generally, it has to do "with local news" or the information is mainly for that geographical area and would be of little interest "on a Global scale".

I also agree, a thread should be opened "on Belarus". I would suggest - some background information for starters and where it fit's in with current events.

" it appears Europe is headed for more instability. At any rate in ten years both Russia and Belarus will have a new leadership"

The instability is mainly due to "cause and effect" of the manufactured war activities of the Power-Hungry Elites. The various groups that make up the Military (Army, Navy, Marines, elite squads, etc.) are only their subordinates, moving chess pieces around a geographical game board, while they plunder and destroy everything in their path. Human life and the misery they create - have little bearing on their greed inspired ambitions. At this juncture, the Elites have managed to disrupt and cause instability across the Globe. Everything is inter-connected and the World has gotten smaller. How do you stop the Elites - stop playing by their rules and manufactured manipulations.

"At any rate in ten years both Russia and Belarus will have a new leadership ..."

I don't know much about Belarus to be able to comment on what the future might hold for that Country but with Russia, since President Putin was sworn into Office in 2000, there are some noteworthy and remarkable differences from that time period - up to the present. For one, an improved economy and living conditions. The food supply is more abundant and the quality has been improved by eliminating GMO's and additives. Education "on all levels" is a top priority including moral and traditional family values and responsibilities. And the list goes on.

When I think of Putin, I don't see just one man but a highly skilled and educated group around him and they work in unison, towards higher goals. Mostly, the Russian people are all about "sharing and working together" which I come to understand - is a natural inborn trait. I think, Putin has laid down a foundation (of sorts) that has pulled the Country together and improved their living standards. On a Social and Diplomatic level, Russia is expanding it's influence and changing some of the old game rules by which society and some Countries have grown accustom too. Russia isn't about isolation or dominating any Country but is about working relationships and sharing ideas and resources. I don't see that progress - changing any time soon - no matter who comes "after Putin"? In a sense, Putin has laid the ground work - that's the foundational base or template, that other's after him, can expand on - towards positive growth within their Country, while also working with other's, on the International level. It's a win-win situation.

Not trying to change the subject but I was checking out some local news sources and there was a report "of a family trying to cross the Mexican Border, into the United States" - yelling "but we want to be American's!" In the near future, I can picture people wanting to cross the Border - into Russia because Russia will have better living standard compared to most Countries, that at present, consider themselves "superior" (in word only).

 

[angelburst29]

Nov. 18, 2018 - Lawyer confirms Ukraine’s ex-president hospitalized, will skip Kiev court hearing
Lawyer confirms Ukraine’s ex-president hospitalized, will skip Kiev court hearing

A spokesperson for the Sklifosovsky hospital said Yanukovych had been hospitalized there on Friday and discharged on the same day.

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was hospitalized in Moscow on Friday and won’t be able to attend a hearing in a Kiev court, his lawyer Alexander Goroshinsky has told TASS.

"On Friday I was in Moscow, I tried to contact him, but his assistants told me about his hospitalization," the lawyer said.

"I arrived in the hospital and we talked," Goroshinsky said.

Yanukovych was hospitalized with a suspected spine and knee injury, he said. "I cannot reveal the exact diagnosis, but I saw with my own eyes that the man cannot move."

The former president won’t be able to make his last plea in Kiev’s Obolonsky court on Monday, which is due to hear the case on high treason charges against him, the lawyer said.

Earlier in the day, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported on its website citing a source that Yanukovych had been sent to the Sklifosovsky emergency hospital in downtown Moscow with a suspected spine and knee injury, which he had presumably received during a tennis game. The politician was sent to intensive care and later transferred to a private clinic, the source told the paper.

A spokesperson for the Sklifosovsky hospital said Yanukovych had been hospitalized there on Friday and discharged on the same day.

Yanukovych served as Ukraine’s president in 2010-2014. After the coup d’etat in February 2014, he fled to Russia.


Nov. 18, 2018 - Kiev plotting sabotage act at one of chemical plant in Gorlovka - Donetsk militias
Kiev plotting sabotage act at one of chemical plant in Gorlovka - Donetsk militias

The goal of this operation is to distract the DPR forces, spokesman for the militias in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Daniil Bezsonov said.

Ukraine’s forces are preparing to carry out an act of sabotage at the Stirol plant in Gorlovka, one of Europe’s largest chemical plants, Spokesman for the militias in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Daniil Bezsonov said on Sunday.

"The Ukrainian command together with its Western sponsors is preparing a major act of sabotage at the Stirol chemical plant," Bezsonov was quoted by the Donetsk News Agency as saying.

The goal of this operation is to distract the DPR forces, which will be deployed to evacuate citizens to safe areas, in order to reach further territories in the republic. According to the spokesman, the act of sabotage will be conducted by the Ukrainian units, which have received chemical protection kits.

 

[angelburst29]

I suspect, Pope Francis is behind this schism between the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Churches? The ancient secret hidden skeletons of child sexual abuse and prostitution within the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church is collapsing it's inner sanctuaries and institutions. Catholicism is in a death spiral and it wants to drag the Orthodox Religion - down with it?

Oct. 15, 2018 - Syrian patriarch calls for Orthodox world’s unity, slams ill-timed ‘autocephaly issue’
Syrian patriarch calls for Orthodox world’s unity, slams ill-timed ‘autocephaly issue’

11-21-2018 - Source: US State Dept Paid $25 Mil Bribe to Patriarch of Constantinople to Foment Religious Chaos in Ukraine
Source: US State Dept Paid $25 Mil Bribe to Patriarch of Constantinople to Foment Religious Chaos in Ukraine

Bartholomew has a shady past - he is also implicated in embezzling $10 million from a project to rebuild an Orthodox church near ground zero in Manhattan, destroyed on 9/11.

Was $25 million in American tax dollars allocated for a payoff to stir up religious turmoil and violence in Ukraine? Did Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (unsuccessfully) attempt to divert most of it into his own pocket?

Last month the worldwide Orthodox Christian communion was plunged into crisis by the decision of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Constantinople to recognize as legitimate schismatic pseudo-bishops anathematized by the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is an autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church. In so doing not only has Patriarch Bartholomew besmirched the global witness of Orthodoxy’s two-millennia old Apostolic faith, he has set the stage for religious strife in Ukraine and fratricidal violence – which has already begun.

Starting in July, when few were paying attention, this analyst warned about the impending dispute and how it facilitated the anti-Christian moral agenda of certain marginal “Orthodox” voices like “Orthodoxy in Dialogue,” Fordham University’s “Orthodox Christian Studies Center,” and The Wheel.

Bartholomew is close to the Clintons ...

These “self-professed teachers presume to challenge the moral teachings of the faith” (in the words of Fr. John Parker) and “prowl around, wolves in sheep’s clothing, forming and shaping false ideas about the reality of our life in Christ.” Unsurprisingly such groups have embraced Constantinople’s neopapal self-aggrandizement and support for the Ukrainian schismatics.

No one – and certainly not this analyst – would accuse Patriarch Bartholomew, most Ukrainian politicians, or even the Ukrainian schismatics of sympathizing with advocacy of such anti-Orthodox values. And yet these advocates know they cannot advance their goals if the conciliar and traditional structure of Orthodoxy remains intact.

... and to Poroshenko ...

Thus they welcome efforts by Constantinople to centralize power while throwing the Church into discord, especially the Russian Church, which is vilified in some Western circles precisely because it is a global beacon of traditional Christian moral witness.

This aspect points to another reason for Western governments to support Ukrainian autocephaly as a spiritual offensive against Russia and Orthodoxy. The post-Maidan leadership harp on the “European choice” the people of Ukraine supposedly made in 2014, but they soft-pedal the accompanying moral baggage the West demands, symbolized by “gay” marches organized over Christian objections in Orthodox cities like Athens, Belgrade, Bucharest, Kiev, Odessa, Podgorica, Sofia, and Tbilisi. Even under the Trump administration, the US is in lockstep with our European Union friends in pressuring countries liberated from communism to adopt such nihilistic “democratic, European values.”

... and very, very friendly with Pope Francis, something many Orthodox, including most Russians, are outraged by ... In short, he is seen as a flunky for the globalists.

Perhaps even more important to its initiators, the row over Ukraine aims to break what they see as the “soft power” of the Russian Federation, of which the Orthodox Church is the spiritual heart and soul. As explained by Valeria Z. Nollan, professor emerita of Russian Studies at Rhodes College:

‘The real goal of the quest for autocephaly [i.e., complete self-governing status independent of the Moscow Patriarchate] of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a de facto coup: a political coup already took place in 2014, poisoning the relations between western Ukraine and Russia, and thus another type of coup – a religious​

one – similarly seeks to undermine the canonical relationship between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Moscow.’​

​

In furthering these twin objectives (morally, the degrading of Orthodox Christianity; politically, undermining the Russian state as Orthodoxy’s powerful traditional protector) it is increasingly clear that the United States government – and specifically the Department of State – has become a hands-on fomenter of conflict. After a short period of appropriately declaring that “any decision on autocephaly is an internal [Orthodox] church matter,” the Department within days reversed its position and issued a formal statement (in the name of Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, but clearly drafted by the European bureau) that skirted a direct call for autocephaly but gave the unmistakable impression of such backing. This is exactly how it was reported in the media, for example, “US backs Ukrainian Church bid for autocephaly.” Finally, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo weighed in personally with his own endorsement as did the US Reichskommissar for Ukraine, Kurt Volker.​

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The Threat…​

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There soon became reason to believe that the State Department’s involvement was not limited to exhortations. As reported by this analyst in October, according to an unconfirmed report originating with the members of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (an autonomous New York-based jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate), in July of this year State Department officials (possibly including Secretary Pompeo personally) warned the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (also based in New York but part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate) that the US government was aware of the misappropriation of a large amount of money, about $10 million, from estimated $37 million raised from believers for the construction of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine in New York.​

​

The State Department warning also reportedly noted that federal prosecutors have documentary evidence confirming the withdrawal of these funds abroad on the orders of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. It was suggested that Secretary Pompeo would “close his eyes” to this theft in exchange for movement by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in favor of Ukrainian autocephaly, which helped set Patriarch Bartholomew on his current course.​

​

[Further details on the St. Nicholas scandal are available here, but in summary: Only one place of worship of any faith was destroyed in the September 11, 2001, attack in New York and only one building not part of the World Trade Center complex was completely destroyed. That was St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, a small urban parish church established at the end of World War I and dedicated to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, who is very popular with Greeks as the patron of sailors.​

​

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attack, and following a lengthy legal battle with the Port Authority, which opposed rebuilding the church, in 2011 the Greek Archdiocese launched an extensive campaign to raise funds for a brilliant innovative design by the renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava based on traditional Byzantine forms. Wealthy donors and those of modest means alike enthusiastically contributed millions to the effort. Then – poof! In December 2017, suddenly all construction was halted for lack of funds and remains stalled to this day. Resumption would require having an estimated $2 million on hand. Despite the Archdiocese’s calling in a major accounting firm to conduct an audit, there’s been no clear answer to what happened to the money. Both the US Attorney and New York state authorities are investigating.]​

​

This is where things get back to Ukraine. If the State Department wanted to find the right button to push to spur Patriarch Bartholomew to move on the question of autocephaly, the Greek Archdiocese in the US is it. Let’s keep in mind that in his home country, Turkey, Patriarch Bartholomew has virtually no local flock – only a few hundred mostly elderly Greeks left huddled in Istanbul’s Phanar district. (Sometimes the Patriarchate is referred to simply as “the Phanar,” much as “the Vatican” is shorthand for the Roman Catholic papacy.)​

​

Whatever funds the Patriarchate derives from other sources (the Greek government, the Roman Catholic Church, the World Council of Churches), the Phanar’s financial lifeline is the ethnic Greek community (including this analyst) in what is still quaintly called the “Diaspora” in places like America, Australia, and New Zealand. And of these, the biggest cash cow is the Greek-Americans.​

​

That’s why, when Patriarch Bartholomew issued a call in 2016 for what was billed as an Orthodox “Eighth Ecumenical Council” (the first one since the year 787!), the funds largely came from America, to the tune of up to $8 million according to the same confidential source as will be noted below. Intended by some as a modernizing Orthodox “Vatican II,” the event was doomed to failure by a boycott organized by Moscow over what the latter saw as Patriarch Bartholomew’s adopting papal or even imperial prerogatives – now sadly coming to bear in Ukraine.​

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…and the Payoff ​

On top of the foregoing, it now appears that the State Department’s direct hand in this sordid business may not have consisted solely of wielding the “stick” of legal threat: there’s reason to believe there was a “carrot” too. It very recently came to the attention of this analyst, via an unsolicited, confidential source in the Greek Archdiocese in New York, that a payment of $25 million in US government money was made to Constantinople to encourage Patriarch Bartholomew to move forward on Ukraine.​

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The source for this confidential report was unaware of earlier media reports that the same figure – $25 million – was paid by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to the Phanar as an incentive for Patriarch Bartholomew to move forward on creating an independent Ukrainian church. Moreover, Poroshenko evidently tried to shortchange the payment:​

​

‘Peter [Petro] Poroshenko — the president of Ukraine — was obligated to return $15 million US dollars to the Patriarch of Constantinople, which he had appropriated for himself.​

​

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‘As reported by Izvestia, this occurred after the story about Bartholomew's bribe and a "vanishing" large sum designated for the creation of a Unified Local Orthodox Church in Ukraine surfaced in the mass media.​

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‘As reported, on the eve of Poroshenko's visit in Istanbul, a few wealthy people of Ukraine "chipped in" in order to hasten the process of creating a Unified Local Orthodox Church. About $25 million was collected. They were supposed to go to the award ceremony for Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople for the issuing of a tomos of autocephaly. [A tomos is a small book containing a formal announcement.] However, in the words of people close to the backer, during the visit on April 9, Poroshenko handed over only $10 million.​

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‘As a result, having learned of the deal, Bartholomew cancelled the participation of the delegation of the Phanar – the residence of the Patriarch of Constantinople, in the celebration of the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia on July 27 in Kiev.​

​

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‘"Such a decision from Bartholomew's side was nothing other than a strong ultimatum to Poroshenko to return the stolen money. Of course, in order to not lose his face in light of the stark revelations of the creation of the tomos of autocephaly for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Peter Alexeevich [Poroshenko] had to just return those $15 million for the needs of Constantinople," a trusted source explained to reporters.​

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‘For preliminary information, only after receiving the remaining sum, did Bartholomew finally give his consent to sending a delegation of the Phanar to Kiev … ‘​

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Now, it’s possible that the two identical figures of $25 million refer to two different pots of money (a cool $50 million!) but that seems unlikely. It’s more probable the reports refer to the same sum as viewed from the sending side (the State Department, the Greek Archdiocese) and the delivery side (Poroshenko, Constantinople).​

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Lending credibility to the confidential information from New York and pointing to the probability that it refers to the same payment that Poroshenko reportedly sought to raid for himself are the following observations:​

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• When Poroshenko generously offered Patriarch Bartholomew $10 million, the latter was aware that the full amount was $25 million and demanded the $15 million Poroshenko had held back. How did the Patriarch know that, unless he was informed via New York of the full sum?
• If the earlier-reported $25 million was really collected from “a few wealthy people of Ukraine” who “chipped in,” given the cutthroat nature of disputes among Ukrainian oligarchs would Poroshenko (an oligarch in his own right) have risked trying to shortchange the payment? Why has not even one such Ukrainian donor been identified?
• Without going into all the details, the Phanar and the Greek Archdiocese have a long relationship with US administrations of both parties going back at least to the Truman administration, encompassing some decidedly unattractive episodes. In such a history, a mere bribe for a geopolitical shot against Moscow would hardly be a first instance or the worst.

As one of this analyst’s Greek-American connections puts it: “It’s easy to comprehend the Patriarchate bowing to the pressure of State Dept. blackmail... not overly savory, but understandable. However, it’s another thing altogether if Kiev truly “purchased” their autocephalous status from an all too willing Patriarchate ... which would relegate the Patriarch to ‘salesman’ status and leave the faithful wondering what else might be offered to the highest bidder the next time it became convenient to hold a Patriarchal ‘fire sale’ at the Phanar?!”​

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To add insult to injury, you’d think Constantinople at least could pay back some of the $7-8 million wasted on the Crete 2016 debacle to restart the St. Nicholas project in New York. Evidently the Phanar has better things to spend it on, like the demonstrative environmentalism of “the Green Patriarch” and, together with Pope Francis, welcoming Muslim migrants to Europe through Greece.​

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Of course maybe there’s no need to worry, as the Ukraine “sale” was consistent with Constantinople’s papal ambitions, an uncanonical claim to “universal” status, and misuse of incarnational language and adoption of a breathtakingly arrogant tone that would cause even the most ultramontane proponent of the Rome’s supremacy to blush.​

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Finally, it seems that, for the time being at least, Constantinople doesn’t intend to create an independent Ukrainian church but rather an autonomous church under its own authority. It’s unclear whether or not Poroshenko or the State Department, in such event, would believe they had gotten their money’s worth. Perhaps they would. After all, the issue here is less what is appropriate for Ukraine than what strikes at Russia and injures the worldwide Christian witness of the Orthodox Church. To that end, it doesn’t matter whether the new illegal body is Constantinopolitan or Kievan, just so long as it isn’t a “Moskal church” linked to Russia.​

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Source: Strategic Culture​

19.10.2018 - NATO’s Unholy Intrigues Behind Church Rupture to Weaken Russia
NATO’s Unholy Intrigues Behind Church Rupture to Weaken Russia

The epoch-making rupture this week in the Orthodox Christian Church has made some commentators refer to it as the biggest event since the Great Schism in the 11th century.

The latter historical watershed almost a millennium ago was when the unitary Christian Church split into Western and Eastern hemispheres, each subsequently centered on Rome and Constantinople, respectively.

That timescale suggests the magnitude and gravity of this week’s rupture, when the Russian Orthodox Church decreed that it could no longer be in communion with the Constantinople Patriarchate.

The Russian move was prompted by Constantinople’s controversial recognition of breakaway Ukrainian Churches, which have been in schism with the Moscow Patriarchate for several years now.

To many people in the Western world these developments may seem rather obscure, or even inconsequential. But they are a direct result of geopolitics, which are further fueling international tensions.

In particular, the dynamic follows the US-led NATO military alliance’s relentless attempts to shift former Soviet countries into Washington’s geopolitical orbit.

The use of religion as a vehicle for imperial conquest is certainly nothing new. Centuries attest to that unseemly business.

More recently, when the Soviet Union broke up in the early 1990s, the Vatican (Rome) and Western political powers exploited the dismemberment of Yugoslavia to undermine the Serbian Orthodox Church, and to encroach on Russia’s sphere of influence, religiously, but primarily, politically.

The Ukrainian Churches’ schism since the early 1990s with Russia has been driven by NATO and Kiev’s partisan political agenda to repudiate Moscow. The Cold War didn’t die. It was resurrected through religious means.

Since the CIA-backed coup in Kiev in 2014 by Neo-Nazi factions, the sectarian religious tensions have intensified, with the Ukrainian Churches expropriating properties and sanctities belonging traditionally to the Russian Church. Historically, the Moscow Patriarchate has included Kiev under its religious jurisdiction.

Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) is the titular head of the wider Orthodox Church. Its move earlier this month to grant recognition to the Ukrainian Churches as independent from Russia was reproached this week by the Moscow Patriarchate as unlawful and a breach of its clerical authority. That move has now led to the epoch-making rupture between Russia and Constantinople, which oversees the Greek Orthodox Church.

The present schism is an extremely regrettable fracturing of the entire Orthodox Church, which numbers some 300 million people among several countries. The Russian Patriarchate, while announcing the split with Constantinople this week, has expressed a desire for common sense to prevail in the future and for a reconciliation.

Nevertheless, there are serious implications from the latest schism. There is a real danger of an even sharper sectarian polarization in Ukrainian society and more broadly across Eastern Europe. Despite the breakaway Churches under Kiev, many Ukrainians still profess adherence to the Russian Orthodox faith and the Moscow Patriarchate.

It is ominous that the Kiev Patriarchate is now demanding Ukrainians to repudiate the Russian Church. That will further sharpen the West-East divide within that country. The sectarian tensions reflect the growing belligerence from the current Kiev political leadership towards the ethnic Russian people of Eastern Ukraine.

How deplorable that supposed religious aspirations are adding to the drumbeat of war.

Again, it must be stressed that Washington and NATO’s agenda of enlisting Kiev into its ranks is a key factor in why the religious tensions have burst into a rupture. That, in turn, is leading to more divisiveness and conflict across Ukraine.

The irony here is that Washington and other Western capitals accuse Russia of interference in their countries, when in fact the much more extant interference is from the West in Russia and its region, as can be seen from the momentous schism unfolding in the Orthodox Church.

Another factor is that the Orthodox schism is consonant with Washington and NATO’s agenda of trying to isolate Russia geopolitically. By fomenting a rupture in Orthodox unity, it is calculated that the Russian Church and the political leadership of President Vladimir Putin will be seen as more isolated internationally.

This NATO-inspired assault on Russia’s religious standing is without doubt connected to the war in Syria. Russia’s military intervention in Syria since late 2015 is viewed by Orthodox Christians in the region, as well as by other faiths, as saving that country from a covert, dirty war sponsored by NATO using barbaric Islamist proxies.

The latest intrigue to undermine and fracture the Orthodox Church, Russia in particular, is a very dangerous, not to say reprehensible, assault on the internal stability of countries, ranging from the Middle East, Africa to Asia.

By undermining religious institutions and forcing sectarian polarization, the fabric of societies is being tampered with. That potential instability is being propelled by Washington and NATO’s agenda of trying to weaken Russia under Putin, who is viewed as a serious obstacle to US-desired global hegemony.

The unholy intrigues in the Orthodox Church are beckoned by completely areligious and profane political objectives. It is a shame that the Constantinople and Kiev Patriarchates are evidently willing to make an expedient, selfish pact with the devil of foreign imperialist ambitions.

 

[Voyageur]

The latest intrigue to undermine and fracture the Orthodox Church, Russia in particular, is a very dangerous, not to say reprehensible, assault on the internal stability of countries, ranging from the Middle East, Africa to Asia.

There are a million and one things I don't clearly know about the Orthodox Church; its shift from Constantinople to Russia and some of its history back in time, as example.

I've recently read a few articles (blog posts) on this 'Orthodox England Events Blog', and here is a November posting on Ukraine that was somewhat surprising (and going back to other posts, too). The writer appears to be one Father Andrew in England.

I think you will see that he is pointing some things out (whether they are all correct or not I don't know) to keep an eye on.

A Gogolian Farce is Played Out in the Ukraine

Archbishop Job Getcha, the very young and inexperienced Canadian reject from the tiny schismatic Rue Daru group in Paris, has now been selected as the head of the new Phanariot ‘Church’ in the Ukraine. Well-known as an ecumenist, he is also notorious for his private behaviour in Paris (the photographs have long been on the internet) and for his public tyranny. However, he is the darling of the Canadian Secret Services, a northern branch of the CIA, and now has to create a Church under the rigid control of his schismatic, US-appointed Patriarch in Istanbul and the US-appointed President, the Uniat billionaire Poroshenko/Waltzman.

With a flock of two (a schismatic defrocked former KGB agent and self-appointed married ‘patriarch’, together with a schismatic ‘metropolitan’) and a single church building handed over to him by the Kiev State regime, Archbishop Job Getcha has ordered all bishops in the Ukraine to obey him! An authority-less authoritarian, this young Canadian academic will now learn about reality. Instead of uniting the three small regional nationalist schismatic groups in the Ukraine (three because we count the pro-Fascist Uniats, also based in ex-Poland in the far west of the contemporary Ukraine) with the huge canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Istanbul has now simply founded a fourth schism.

Here is yet another result of the century-old interference of Istanbul in the canonical territories and affairs of other Local Churches, from Finland to Estonia, from Poland to Czechoslovakia, from Paris to New York, from Bulgaria to Greece, from Serbia to Russia…It would be funny if it were not tragic…

In this post dated yesterday, he seems to be saying how this (going back to his words "fourth schism") is making it difficult for the priests to even take their communion - as part of the Diaspora he does not mince words as wedges are dividing them: which they are caught up in within this larger divisive game of international political maneuvering.

After the Phanariot Schism the Pastoral Crisis Intensifies in the Diaspora

Today in the Ukraine, the CIA-trained, Kiev-regime secret police, the much-feared SBU, is summoning Ukrainian Orthodox bishops one by one to its headquarters for ‘a conversation’. The old KGB techniques and torture chambers may be used again, in case the bishops decide not to go over to the Phanariot schism. Ex-Patriarch Bartholomew will have blood on his hands, just like the US and the EU, which first created the bloody coup and bankrupt regime, which is propped up in Kiev by IMF (= US) money.

However, apart from in the Ukraine, the fact that the three million-strong Patriarchate of Constantinople under financial pressure (the $25 million dollars paid to it by the US administration) has broken away from the 164 million-strong Russian Orthodox Church has had little effect in the Russian Federation and Eastern Europe. But in the Diaspora there is a huge effect. Virtually every day we pastors are confronted with the catastrophic consequences: Where can I go to church and take communion now?

Russian, English and other Orthodox who used to rely on the many Greek Churches can no longer receive the sacraments there and are looking for alternatives. In England a whole ex-Russian, now Constantinople, convent/monastery has fallen away from the Church and is now out of communion with us. No conscious, non-phyletist and spiritually free Orthodox wants to be in communion with the anathematized and defrocked former KGB Denisenko, in an affair of corruption that would make gangsters blush.

Two priests and hundreds of people have already left Constantinople, but far more want to leave. They would leave, but they have nowhere near to go: they need new parishes, using the uncompromised Orthodox calendar, and also new buildings. And here we see all the consequences of historic incompetence, laziness and pastoral neglect of the flock. The decades of refusal by the Russian Church to meet the needs of the faithful in the past (‘they can go to the Greeks’) sound even more inadequate today.

There are those who need to stop persecuting pastors and support us. It is time to stop the attachment to a very few small if splendid church-buildings and pay attention to souls. It is all very well to say that the Russian Orthodox faithful are not to attend churches of the schismatic Patriarchate of Constantinople, but quite another to provide them with alternative churches and care. Here, just in the White Russian East of England, we need nine more priests, as we have been calling out for all this time, ignored.

Actions speak louder than words. The failures of the diplomats of the Church in Moscow, who preferred to celebrate in Phanariot churches instead of in ours, are clear. However, they can be made up for now by at last showing faithfulness and setting up the infrastructure of the network of churches which we neglected pastors in the Diaspora have been struggling unaided to set up for so many decades. Europe, the Americas, Oceania and so many worldwide await. Old sins do indeed cast long shadows….