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☆ Transfer of holy icon shows Russian Orthodoxy's new sway under Putin
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Emphasising its importance to the faithful, Putin last month ordered Andrei Rublev's "Trinity" be transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church from Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery for a year. For some, though, there is unease at the sway of the Church - and concern about possible damage to the fragile icon. She quipped that Russian leaders over the centuries have turned to icons in tough situations with the hope of victory. "Masterpieces of Russian icon painting and national shrines should not be exposed to unjustified risk," members of a cultural council within the Russian Academy of Sciences wrote in an open letter to Russian Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova. "The only space suitable for placing the icon 'Trinity' by Andrei Rublev is in the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery, which is confirmed by almost a century of practice."

Persons: Vladimir Putin's, Putin, Andrei Rublev's, Moscow's Tretyakov, the, Josef Stalin, Abraham, Regina Elsner, Sergius –, Bolsheviks, Kirill of Moscow, Kirill, Putin's, Ksenia, Leonardo da Vinci's, Mona Lisa, Tretyakov, Korobeynikova, Olga Lyubimova, Andrei Rublev, Lucy Papachristou, Guy Faulconbridge, Mark Potter Organizations: Trinity Sunday, Soviet Union, Church, Eastern European, International Studies, Kremlin, Putin, Reuters, Russian Academy of Sciences, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Moscow, Ukraine, Moscow's, Soviet, Mamre, Russian, Berlin, Russia, Trinity, St, Moscow –, Gdansk

[1/2] A security guard stands next to the Trinity icon at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius in the town of Sergiyev Posad, Russia, July 18, 2022. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File PhotoMay 27 (Reuters) - Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, on Saturday dismissed his expert on art and restoration for obstructing the transfer of a historic 15th-century Trinity icon to the Church from a Moscow museum. On Saturday, Patriarch Kirill decreed that Kalinin be dismissed from his post "in connection with the obstruction of bringing the icon" to Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Kalinin was also banned from the priesthood, according to the note published on the Russian Orthodox Church's website. Patriarch Kirill said last year that those who died fighting in Ukraine would be purged of their sins.

☆ Barely Noting War in Public, Putin Acts Like Time Is on His Side
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Anton Troianovski | Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Pro-Ukrainian fighters stormed across the border into southwestern Russia this past week, prompting two days of the heaviest fighting on Russian territory in 15 months of war. Yet President Vladimir V. Putin, in public, ignored the matter entirely. He handed out medals, met the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, hosted friendly foreign leaders and made televised small talk with a Russian judge about how Ukraine was not a real country. In managing Russia’s biggest war in generations, Mr. Putin increasingly looks like a commander in chief in absentia: In public, he says next to nothing about the course of the war and betrays little concern about Russia’s setbacks. Instead, he is telegraphing more clearly than ever that his strategy is to wait out Ukraine and the West — and that he thinks he can win by exhausting his foes.

☆ Czechs cancel Soviet-era decrees giving Russian embassy free land
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PRAGUE, May 17 (Reuters) - The Czech government on Wednesday cancelled Soviet-era decrees that granted the Russian embassy free use of land in Prague and other cities, a further step in a more than two-year diplomatic spat with Moscow worsened by the war in Ukraine. The Russian embassy in Prague did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Russia will now have to pay leases to use of the land, the foreign ministry said. Prague has been a strong supporter of Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 2022 and has supplied it with military aid. The Czech parliament designated "the current Russian regime as terrorist" in November.

☆ Moldovan region headed for clash with pro-European government
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Alexander Tanas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

CHISINAU, May 16 (Reuters) - The assembly in a pro-Russian region of Moldova on Tuesday endorsed the election of a local leader intent on improving ties with Moscow, a move that set up a clash with the country's pro-European government. The southern Moldovan region of Gagauzia elected a new "bashkan", or leader, last weekend in a race featuring only pro-Russian candidates. But Moldova's prime minister and other officials have suggested central authorities will try to annul the results on grounds of widespread irregularities. "The police and prosecutors have made public irregularities noted in the course of the vote," he told Moldova's Pro TV. As the Gagauzia assembly unanimously approved the election outcome, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the building shouting "Down with Dictatorship, down with Maia Sandu!"

☆ Ukraine’s Holiest Site Is Battleground in Campaign to Erase Russian Influence
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Ian Lovett | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

KYIV—For years, Pavlo Lebid embodied the Russian Orthodox Church’s power in Ukraine’s capital. One of the highest-ranking officials in the church’s Ukrainian branch, with the title “Metropolitan,” he rode around in luxury cars and was captured on video questioning the authority of police to ticket him. His portrait was painted onto a wall of a cathedral at the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, Ukraine’s holiest site, where he is abbot. Residents dubbed him “Pasha Mercedes.”

☆ Russia to hold Victory Day parade amid tight security after drone attacks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Gareth Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] Russian service members march in columns before a rehearsal for a military parade, which marks the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Moscow, Russia May 7, 2023. Russia is also reeling from drone attacks, including one on the Kremlin on May 3 which it said was an attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. Putin has repeatedly likened the Ukraine war - which he casts as a battle against "Nazi"-inspired nationalists - to the challenge the Soviet Union faced when Hitler invaded in 1941. Kyiv says this is absurd and accuses Russia of behaving like Nazi Germany by waging an unprovoked war of aggression and seizing Ukrainian territory. However, reflecting increased security concerns caused partly by the drone attacks, authorities have cancelled the traditional flyover.

☆ Pope meets Moscow Church official after puzzling peace 'mission' comment
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/4] Pope Francis greets Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church during the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, May 3, 2023. Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERSVATICAN CITY, May 3 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Wednesday spoke to a top member of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) days after the pontiff made an intriguing but puzzling comment about the Vatican being involved in a mission to try to end the war in Ukraine. Francis added that he had spoken about Ukraine with Orban and with Metropolitan Hilarion, the chief representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Budapest and Anthony's predecessor as head of the ROC's external relations. Francis, 86, has said previously that he wants to visit Kyiv but also Moscow on a peace mission. He also said he had repeated a standing invitation for the pope to visit Kyiv.

☆ Russia’s battered wartime economy is still chugging along as it taps its wealth fund, raises taxes, and ramps up imports
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Shares of First Republic dropped more than 40% in pre-market trading today, while JPMorgan stock ticked 2.9% higher. Let's check in on Russia's wartime economy. To the surprise of many forecasters, Russia's economy has held up better than expected as it carries on into the second year of its war on Ukraine. And leaked documents, first reported by the Washington Post, suggest that Russia can fund its war for at least another year. Specifically, US intelligence says Moscow can rely on its sovereign wealth fund to help pay for its war efforts, as well as higher corporate taxes and ramped-up imports.

☆ Pope Reveals He’s Working on Secret ‘Mission’ of Peace in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

BUDAPEST — Pope Francis said on Sunday that the Vatican was involved in a secret “mission” to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine and that it would do “all that is humanly possible” to return children taken from Ukraine to Russia and reunite families. The pope’s remarks to reporters aboard the papal plane returning from a three-day trip to Budapest did not specify what the “not yet public” mission entailed. But Francis said he had privately discussed the situation with both Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and with the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Budapest, Metropolitan Hilarion. “In these meetings we did not just talk about Little Red Riding Hood,” Francis said. He has opposed sending military aid to Ukraine and imposing international sanctions against Russia.

☆ Pope says the Vatican is involved in a peace mission to end the war in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Antonia Mortensen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —The Vatican is part of a peace mission to end the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis said Sunday. “The mission is in the course now, but it is not yet public. When it is public, I will reveal it,” Francis told reporters. Francis also heard testimony from refugees – many from Ukraine – and appealed to the importance of charity during his Budapest visit. On Sunday, the pontiff also told reporters that he was feeling better after being hospitalized in late March with a respiratory infection.

☆ Pope says Vatican involved in secret Ukraine peace mission
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] Pope Francis holds a news conference as he returns to the Vatican following his apostolic journey to Hungary, aboard the plane, April 30, 2023. Vincenzo Pinto/Pool via REUTERSABOARD PAPAL PLANE, April 30 (Reuters) - The Vatican is involved in a peace mission to try to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Pope Francis said on Sunday, declining to give further details. When it is public, I will reveal it," the pope told reporters during a flight home after a three-day visit to Hungary. Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal met the pope at the Vatican on Thursday and said he had discussed a "peace formula" put forward by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Pope Francis, 86, has said previously that he wants to visit Kyiv but also Moscow on a peace mission.

☆ Pope, meeting Ukrainian refugees, says better future possible
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Bernadett SzaboBUDAPEST, April 29 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Saturday met Ukrainians who fled the war on Hungary's eastern border, telling the refugees that a different future is possible. "We were welcomed here and we have found a new home (but) many have suffered and suffer still because of the war," Yakovlev told the pope. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, millions of refugees have fled through Central Europe, including Hungary, and moved to other countries. Later the pontiff met with Metropolitan (bishop) Hilarion, representative of the Russian Orthodox Church(ROC)in Budapest. The Russian Orthodox Church is by far the biggest of the churches in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which split with Western Christianity in the Great Schism of 1054.

☆ Russia-Ukraine War News: Pope Francis Discusses Peace Efforts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Gaia Pianigiani | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

A photo provided by the Vatican shows Pope Francis, center left, with the prime minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, center right, during a private audience in the Vatican on Thursday. Pope Francis discussed peace efforts in Ukraine with the country’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, during a private audience at the Vatican on Thursday, their first known meeting since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. The relationship between Ukraine and Francis, who has long called for peace and decried what he called barbaric acts of war, was troubled in the early months of the conflict. Mr. Shmyhal also asked the pope for help in “returning home Ukrainian children” who have been deported to Russia. Early in the war Ukrainian officials criticized the pope’s decision not to name Russia or its president, Vladimir V. Putin, as the aggressor in the conflict.

☆ Russia's Bolshoi ballet drops 'Nureyev' after 'LGBT propaganda' law
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] A general view shows the empty hall of the Bolshoi Theatre prior to the launch of its project to stream iconic ballet performances online making them available worldwide, in Moscow, Russia March 27, 2020. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File PhotoMOSCOW, April 19 (Reuters) - Moscow's Bolshoi theatre has dropped a contemporary ballet about the legendary Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev from its repertoire following the expansion of a ban on "LGBT propaganda". A law passed in November not only widened an existing prohibition on material considered to promote an LGBT lifestyle but also restricts the "demonstration" of LGBT behaviour. Serebrennikov, one of Russia's leading film, theatre and television directors and stage designers, made his frustration clear. "This criminal 'law' was passed specifically against this show and against several books... Well, OK..." he wrote on his Telegram channel, adding three rainbows - an LGBT symbol.

☆ Russia's Putin attends midnight Orthodox Easter service in Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 16 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Sunday attended an Easter service conducted by the Russian Orthodox Church, which has strongly backed the Kremlin leader's decision to invade Ukraine. Putin, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and dark purple tie, stood to one side in Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral, holding a lit red candle, live images of the midnight service showed. When Patriarch Kirill announced "Christ has risen", Putin joined the other members of the congregation with the reply "Truly he is risen". Kirill's statements backing Russia's invasion, which Kyiv and Western nations condemn as an act of aggression, have splintered the worldwide Orthodox Church. In January, Putin praised the church for supporting Moscow's forces fighting in Ukraine in an Orthodox Christmas message designed to rally people behind his vision of modern Russia.

☆ Ukraine cleric accused of glorifying Russia invasion given house arrest
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Kyiv is cracking down on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) on the grounds it is pro-Russian and collaborating with Moscow, a charge the church denies. In a statement, the UOC said a Kyiv court also ordered Metropolitan Pavlo to wear an electronic bracelet. The Interfax Ukraine and Ukrinform news agencies said Pavlo had been given 60 days of house arrest. Prosecutors said the house arrest and electronic bracelet were precautionary measures and that the case against Pavlo would continue. Moscow said last month that Ukraine was "illegally attacking" the UOC, adding this confirmed the need for its military operations in Ukraine.

☆ Top Ukraine cleric accused of glorifying Russian invasion appears in court
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The hearing was adjourned to Monday after the cleric, Metropolitan Pavlo of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), complained of ill health. The court appearance came after Pavlo was questioned by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which presented the cleric with a series of accusations on the same issue shortly before. The UOC has been accused of maintaining links to the pro-invasion Russian Orthodox Church, which used to be its parent church but with which the UOC says it all broke ties in May 2022. The UOC is Ukraine's second-largest church, though most Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to a separate branch of the faith, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formed four years ago by uniting branches independent of Moscow's authority. In a video posted to the UOC website earlier in the day, Pavlo said he condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

☆ Ecumenical patriarch: Russian Church shares blame for 'crimes' in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Andrius Sytas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew's comments are a rebuke for Russian Patriarch Kirill, whose full-throated blessing for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine has splintered the worldwide Orthodox Church. Bartholomew, who in 2019 infuriated Moscow by recognising the newly established Orthodox Church of Ukraine, said Russian authorities were using the Church as an "instrument for their strategic objectives". The Russian Orthodox Church had no immediate comment. 'MOTHER CHURCH'The Ecumenical Patriarch is based in Istanbul and is viewed as "first among equals" in the Orthodox Church, which has some 260 million followers worldwide, around 100 million of them in Russia. Ukraine says Russia is waging an unprovoked war of aggression aimed at seizing land and crushing its independence.

☆ Russian Orthodox head appeals against eviction of church from Kyiv
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 11 (Reuters) - Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, on Saturday asked Pope Francis and other religious leaders to persuade Ukraine to stop a crackdown against a historically Russian-aligned wing of the church. Kyiv on Friday ordered the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to leave a monastery complex where it is based, the latest move against a denomination the government says is pro-Russian and collaborating with Moscow. Kirill said it was regrettable that Ukrainian worshippers' rights and freedoms were being blatantly violated. Among the many leaders to whom the appeal is addressed are Pope Francis, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the head of Egypt's Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros as well as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk, the church said. Most Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to a separate branch of the faith, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formed four years ago by uniting branches independent of Moscow's authority.

☆ Factbox: Jehovah's Witnesses: some facts about their history and community in Germany
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, March 10 (Reuters) - Here are some facts about the Jehovah's Witnesses and their community in Germany, shaken by a mass shooting at a Jehovah's Witness hall in Hamburg on Thursday. - The first German branch was founded in 1902 in Elberfeld in west Germany - before the "Watch Tower Society" was renamed Jehovah's Witnesses. - Jehovah's Witnesses have struggled to have their beliefs and practices accepted in some parts of the world. - Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted in Nazi Germany for their refusal to swear allegiance to the Nazi regime or join the military. On Dec. 25, 2022, a couple attempted arson with explosives at a Jehovah's Witness' Kingdom Hall in Thornton in the U.S. state of Colorado.

☆ Putin's address to Russia's parliament
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Here are highlights from his speech, which was delivered to members of both houses of parliament, state officials, military commanders and soldiers. CULTURE WARS"They distort historical facts, constantly attack our culture, the Russian Orthodox Church, and other traditional religions of our country. Millions of people in the West understand they are being led to a real spiritual catastrophe. Russia is not withdrawing from the treaty but is suspending its participation..."The United States is developing new types of nuclear weapons... In this situation, the Russian Ministry of Defense and Rosatom must ensure readiness for testing Russian nuclear weapons.

☆ Ukraine sanctions 22 associated with Russian Orthodox Church
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Oleksandr Kozhukhar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KYIV, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Ukraine has imposed sanctions on 22 Russians associated with the Russian Orthodox Church for what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said was their support of genocide under the cloak of religion. According to a decree issued by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the list includes Mikhail Gundayev, who represents the Russian Orthodox Church in the World Council of Churches and other international organizations in Geneva. Russian state media reported that Gundayev is a nephew of the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill. The sanctions are the latest in a series of steps Ukraine has taken against the Russian Orthodox Church, which has backed President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine that is now entering its 12th month. "Sanctions have been imposed against 22 Russian citizens who, under the guise of spirituality, support terror and genocidal policy," Zelenskiy said in his nightly address late on Monday.

☆ Fact Check-Ukrainian church fire from 2021 likely started by electrical fault, according to priest
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A 2021 video of a burning church in Ukraine has circulated online with a caption that baselessly claims it was set alight by Ukrainian nationalists. The posts claim that “Ukrainian nationalists” started the fire after the church rector refused to switch from the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its 11th month, has led many Ukrainians to rally round the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which they see as more pro-Ukrainian than its rival, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Dnipropetrovsk Eparchy published a statement at the time with videos and photos of the church (here ). The video shows a fire at a church in the Dnipropetrovsk region in 2021.

☆ Russia’s Cease-Fire in Ukraine Ends With Few Signs Fighting Abated
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Ian Lovett | Ann M. Simmons | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Smoke rose Saturday over the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after a strike during Moscow’s self-declared cease-fire. Russia’s self-declared 36-hour cease-fire expired with little letup in the fighting on Sunday morning, as Russian forces continued shelling across eastern Ukraine and Moscow-installed officials accused Ukrainian forces of bombing a power plant in occupied Donetsk. The cease-fire, which Russian President Vladimir Putin said would last from noon on Friday to midnight on Saturday, when the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated Christmas, brought little slowdown in the fighting. Ukraine dismissed the call to put down weapons as a ploy and refused to participate.

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