Free Republic

Guest of Honor: Ahmadinejad Washington pundits and policymakers have pooh-poohed the power of the SCO—to their own peril. At this year’s summit, the guest of honor is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will be pushing for the Islamic Republic’s full membership in the increasingly anti-American organization. Iran currently holds observer status, along with India, Pakistan, and Mongolia. Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko is also knocking on the SCO’s doors to gain leverage against Russia, an SCO member.

the People’s Republic of China won’t help the U.S. rein in the rogue regime of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il -- which this week conducted a failed test of a missile designed to reach American cities -- then the U.S. should stop helping China with its own economic and technological development. China must support the U.S. position on North Korea in the U.N. Security Council or pay a price for not doing so. In response to North Korea’s missile tests, Japan has sponsored a resolution in the Security Council that would bar nations from giving North Korea money, material...

MOSCOW (AFP) - Forget politics, oligarchs and Chechnya. What Russians really want to ask their leader is when he lost his virginity, when he will legalise marijuana and when a giant fictional octopus sleeping at the bottom of the ocean will awaken. These are at least some of the most popular questions being put by Russian web surfers to President Vladimir Putin on the Yandex website in preparation for a July 6 interactive Internet question-and-answer session. Putin will respond via Internet in his first-ever webcast to some of the questions posted through the BBC Online and Yandex sites, where queries...

The rally last December was one of nearly a dozen paid-for protests organized by Russian émigrés in the U.S. in the past two years. They spent $150,000 to $200,000 in some months, accounting records indicate, to rally thousands of demonstrators near spots such as United Nations headquarters and the World Trade Center site. State-controlled Russian television, whose content is closely guided by Kremlin handlers, covered some of the events, often as the only news organ present, showing video of them on the evening news back home. Boris Barshevsky at a pay-for-protest rally in Queens, N.Y., last year. Organizers said the...

"You can never be optimistic about anything in our country because it will likely end up badly," is the sentiment of the old-timers in Russia. Youngsters who do NOT remember the Soviet times do not share this sentiment-- nor do they have the aversion to capitalism that their parents and grandparents no doubt have. Young girls wear spike-heeled boots and tread carefully to keep the mud off. They also manage bank branches that specialize in giving small loans to entrepreneurs. Start-ups were few and far between just a few years ago-- bank portfolios have tripled and clients doubled in some...

Venezuela has received its first delivery of tens of thousands of Russian assault rifles. It is the first batch out of a total of 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered from Moscow.

Russia is holding talks with Venezuela to license the manufacture of Kalashnikov rifles there, Russia's state arms exporter has confirmed. On Tuesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Russia planned to build two munitions plants in the country. Moscow has already signed a deal to supply Venezuela with 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles. The move is likely to worry the US, which regards Mr Chavez as a destabilising influence in the region. In May, the US State Department banned arms sales to Venezuela because of concern over its contacts with Iran and Cuba and what it called Venezuela's lack of support for...

Russian Church abroad backs reunion with Moscow Patriarchate San Francisco, May 17, Interfax - A San Francisco session of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad has approved a resolution proposing a reunion with the Moscow Patriarchate, the Russian Church abroad said on its official website. The council will also adopt an act on interaction with the Moscow Patriarchate. Last week's All-Diaspora Convention agreed that "this creative deed must culminate in the restoration of the long-sought unity of the Russian Church," the resolution reads.

16 May 2006, 14:32 Orthodox Muscovites will resist gay parade if it ever takes place Moscow, May 16, Interfax - The Union of Orthodox Citizens believes that the protest against gay parade would support Russian demographic policy. ‘The latest address of the President to the Federal Assembly poses the demographic issue as essential for Russia’ sovereignty and national survival. Any apology of sexual perversion, including the so-called gay parade runs contrary to the presidential address,’ the Union’s statement circulated on Tuesday reads. The authors of the document are convinced that ‘if the authorities do not enforce the law to put...

15 May 2006, 15:02 Propaganda of homosexuality equal to suicide - expert Moscow, May 15, Interfax - Serafim Melentyev, head of the World Development Institute, actively backed the Russian Orthodox Church on the inadmissibility of advertising homosexuality. "Advertising homosexuality taking into consideration the disastrous demographic situation in the country is equal to suicide, as the patriarch said. In my opinion, this is the best wording," Melentyev said at a press conference on Monday in Moscow. This "should be the position not only of the church, but also of society," he said. "Today Russians are dying. And it is evident that...

May 15 2006 6:17PM Russians becoming more optimistic - poll MOSCOW. May 15 (Interfax) - Russians are becoming more optimistic, a poll conducted by the VTsIOM All-Russia Public Opinion Center shows. In April, the number of those who believe that their life will improve grew by around 30% compared with March, while the number of those expecting things to become worse dropped from 16% to 13%. Forty-three percent of respondents claimed they were satisfied with their lives. Eleven percent of those questioned were optimistic about the economic outlook, 31% negative.

SAN FRANCISCO: May 11, 2006 Resolution of the IV All-Diaspora Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia Christ is Risen! We, the participants of the IV All-Diaspora Council, having gathered in the God-preserved city of San Francisco, in the blessed presence of the Protectress of the Russian Diaspora, the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God, and the holy relics of Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, in trembling recognition of the duty laid upon us, in obedience to our Archpastor, Christ, with complete trust and love of the pastors and laity to our First Hierarch, His...

05 May 2006, 09:52 Russians for Church to play more active role in society - poll Moscow, May 5, Interfax - Almost half of Russians (47%) would like the Church to more actively influence spiritual life of the society, while another 29% would like the Church to confine its activity purely to religious ceremonies and rituals, a poll conducted amongst 1,600 from 153 communities of 46 Russian regions by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Studies (VTsIOM) in April showed. Moreover, 18% of Russians want the Church to seriously influence not only the spiritual life of society, but also the...

05 May 2006, 11:42 Moscow Patriarchate official warns against threat of 'liberal totalitarianism' fraught with 'nuclear war of civilizations' Vienna, May 5, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church warns against a threat of 'new liberal totalitarianism', which needs to be avoided. 'Liberals often tell us: the train of globalization, integration, new world order is departing, and we have the last chance to jump in the last door of the last car. But we would sooner ask today: Do you know where this train is going? It may be heading for a precipice', Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate...

Wednesday, May 3, 2006 12:42 p.m. EDT Iran Went Nuclear Despite Secret Clinton Deal A secret 1995 agreement between the Clinton administration and then-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin was supposed to halt the of nuclear technology and military equipment to Iran. But when the Russians continued to help build Iran's premier nuclear facility at Bushehr, the White House refused to impose sanctions. Under the accord hammered out by Chernomyrdin and then-Vice President Al Gore, Russia had agreed to end all weapons sales to Iran by Dec. 31, 1999. But after uncovering the confidential arrangement, the New York Times reported that...

02 May 2006, 11:51 Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholics to meet in Vienna Moscow, May 2, Interfax - An international Christian conference entitled "Give a Soul to Europe. Mission and Responsibility of Churches" will take place in Vienna on May 3-5. The conference is organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for Foreign Church Relations with the support of the Catholic organization Pro Oriente, the Moscow Patriarchate told Interfax. The modern challenges churches are facing today, such as globalization, the sects and secularization of society, will be on the agenda of the meeting between priests, journalists...

http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/synod/eng2006/5eninterviewpa.html  MOSCOW: May 1, 2006   Responses of Patriarch ALEXY II of Moscow and All Russia on Questions From the Official Internet Site of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia   From the Editors: At the last joint meeting of the church Commissions held last February in New York, it was decided to address questions to the First Hierarchs of both parts of the Russian Church relating to the reconciliation process between the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the Moscow Patriarchate. This proposal was approved by the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of...

02 May 2006, 18:00 Russian Church Abroad must assess its history - Alexy II Moscow, May 2, Interfax - Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia said the history of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad "must" be studied in detail and objectively, which is "of importance." "Its history should be viewed from the canonical angle. But one must be aware that it's difficult to come to absolute and final unanimity while assessing all occurrences and historical figures. The whole truth can only be judged by God," the Russian patriarch said in an interview granted to the official website of...

02 May 2006 State Duma deputy urges Russian Church Outside Russia not to doom itself to role of ‘ethnographic museum of gone civilization’ Moscow, May 2, Interfax – Natalia Narochnitskaya, a State Duma deputy and well-known historian, suggests that the Russian Church Outside Russia cast away doubts as to the advisability of restoring unity with the Moscow Patriarchate. ‘Today’s doubts are like temptations endured by a person who wants to adopt baptism but the enemy of humankind whispers into his ear: Wait, you are not ready; don’t do it today but tomorrow!’ Narochnitskaya writes in her article published in Rossiyskaya...

Georgia claims Russia keeps 70 trucks with apples at the border 11:09 | 18/ 04/ 2006 TBILISI, April 18 (RIA Novosti) - The Georgian border guard service said Tuesday that Russia was not allowing trucks with agriculture products from Georgia to enter the country. "A column of 70 trucks with agriculture products, mainly with apples and herbs, had been stuck at a border checkpoint in Verkhniy Lars," a spokesman for the Georgian border guard service said. He said the products did not have certificates required by Russia. Georgia was notified on the Russian prohibition of Georgian agriculture products import two...

17 April 2006, 14:58 Division in Russian Orthodox Church senseless - patriarch Moscow, April 17, Interfax - Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II said on Monday that he prays for the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church inside and outside Russia in every service he ministers. "Today there are no reasons for schism between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian people who found themselves abroad during the Revolution. It is our duty to resolve problems that remain in our relations," he said. Many Russian emigrants have died and the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia "is losing its Russian...

17 April 2006, 15:44 Lenin should be buried if social schism can be avoided - Yavlinsky Moscow, April 17, Interfax - Vladimir Lenin's body should be buried if doing so will not cause a schism in society, Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky told a Monday press conference at the Interfax main office. "Certainly, it would be right to bury Ilyich at a cemetery and to remove Stalin's grave from Red Square," he said. "This should be done without causing any social conflicts or clashes. If this is impossible, we should not give another reason for a public split," he said. De-Bolshevization...

Metropolitan Kirill: Dialogue between the Church and rock music possible Moscow, April 17, Interfax – Metropolitan Kirill, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, supports the affirmation that church preaching and modern rock music can be combined. ‘Church preaching and church mission today should take the path entering an existing culture’, he said during his meeting with famous Russian rock musicians Yury Shevchuk and Constantine Kinchev. According to the metropolitan, it is wrong to deny to the rock culture an opportunity ‘to help youth learn the great truths of the Divine Revelation’. ‘It would be an inexcusable...

13 April 2006, 11:33 Vatican’s representative in Russia disagrees with the US Congress’s negative assessment of religious freedoms in Russia Moscow, April 13, Interfax - Archbishop Antonio Mennini, representative of the Holy See in Russia, does not share the US Congress’s critical remarks on the infringement of religious freedom in Russia and considers the Russian legislation to be optimal for local Catholics. In mid-March, the US Congress House of Representatives adopted a resolution stating once again that the rights of believers are violated and the freedom of religion is restricted in Russia. ‘Unfortunately, I am not aware of any specific...

12 April 2006, 14:42 Orthodox priest baptizes a child in Catholic orphanage Moscow, April 12, Interfax - Rev. Igor Vyzhanov, a secretary for interchristian relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for external church relations baptized a baby in the St. John Bosco Catholic orphanage in Moscow, a charity education center for children and youth. The orphanage leaders invited the Orthodox priest, as the child has an Orthodox background, official web-site of the Moscow Patriarchate reported on Wednesday. Last December members of the working group on the problems in Orthodox-Catholic relations agreed that children baptized as Orthodox and with Orthodox background...

12 April 2006, 11:34 The first Soviet cosmonaut proposed reconstruction of the Church of Christ the Saviour Moscow, April 12, Interfax - Cosmonaut Yury Gagarin was one of the first to put forward as far back as 1964 the initiative to reconstruct the Church of Christ the Saviour destroyed by the Bolsheviks, Air Force Colonel in reserve Valentin Petrov, Gagarin’s close friend, told Interfax. He said Gagarin set forward this proposal after their trip together to St. Sergious’s Laura of the Trinity and visit to the Church Archeology Museum there. ‘When we came up to look at the model of...

31 March 2006, 11:16 Orthodox priest: Russian Church human rights center called to prevent the right to sin Moscow, March 31, Interfax - An Orthodox human rights center planned to be established at the world Russian People’s Council will work at the moral aspects of rights. ‘As human rights have not yet been defined ethically, a sin may well turn out to be a right from the point of view of ethics,’ Rev. Mikhail Dudko, Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations secretary for church-society relations, said as cited by the Kommersant daily on Friday. For instance, he said, secular...

1 March 2006, 16:38 The first Russian Orthodox church to be built in Rome crowned with a cupola and a cross Rome, March 31, Interfax - The cross and cupola of the Russian Orthodox church under construction in Rome have been consecrated and elevated on Friday in the Italian capital city. The church is dedicated to the Holy Protomartyr Catherine. The solemn ceremony was led by Bishop Mark of Yegoryevsk, vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations. Present at the ceremony was Russian Ambassador to Italy Aleksey Meshkov. Addressing the congregation, the bishop described the event as...

31 March 2006 The Moscow Patriarchate: Recognition of the independence of Kosovo to incite a new conflict in the region Moscow, March 30, Interfax - The independence of Kosovo implies negative consequences for Europe for many decades and leads to new developments around the so called ‘unrecognized states’ on the post-Soviet territory, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad said. ‘I believe that if Kosovo gets independence, the consequences would be disastrous. Kosovo and Serbia will bleed constantly, and the region will retain its potential for enmity, hatred and thus for...

LOD, Israel -- A blonde, stylish television presenter, a peripatetic mother of six, and a Russian convert to Judaism, Anastasia Michaeli personifies the brand-new Kadima Party's attempt to shake up Israeli politics. Michaeli, 30, is one of six Russian-speaking immigrants Kadima recruited to join its list of candidates -- a record number for any major Israeli political party -- in the hope of luring a key voting bloc to the platform it calls Israel's new centrist consensus.

Two men attacked and stabbed a nine-year-old girl of mixed Russian and African heritage in St. Petersburg, seriously injuring her in an apparent xenophobic attack, officials said Sunday. The Saturday evening attack took place in an apartment building hallway and was the latest incident targeting foreigners or minorities in Russia's second-largest city. Aliu Tunkara, who heads a civic group for Africans in St. Petersburg, said the girl was returning home after a walk and had just entered the building when two men stabbed her. Alexander Klaus, an investigator with the city prosecutor's office, said in televised comments that during the...

The Times March 25, 2006 Mole may have been fed false information By Michael Evans, Defence Editor THE revelation that a mole inside US Central Command was sending to the Russians secret operational material about the coalition plan to invade Iraq in March 2003 is the most extraordinary development to emerge since Saddam Hussein was found in a hole in the ground. However, the mole’s betrayal might have provided little assistance to the Iraqi dictator. It is conceivable that the material was either deliberately skewed to confuse the Baghdad regime or was out of date by the time that Saddam...

March 23, 2006 — Following are the ABC News Investigative Unit's summaries of five documents from Saddam Hussein's government, which the U.S. government has released. The documents discuss Osama bin Laden, weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda and more. The full documents can be found on the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office Web site: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm. Note: Document titles were added by ABC News. "U.S. War Plan Leaked to Iraqis by Russian Ambassador" Documents dated March 5-8, 2003 Two Iraqi documents dated in March 2003 — on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion — and addressed to the secretary of...

17 March 2006, 14:40 The sign of the cross and Orthodox prayer are capable of killing microbes and change the optical properties of water - a study Moscow, March 17, Interfax - Scientists have proved experimentally the miracle-working properties of the sign of the cross and prayer. ‘We have ascertained that the old custom to make a sign of the cross over food and drink before a meal has a profound mystical meaning. Standing behind it is the practical use: the food is purified literally in an instant. This is a great miracle, which happens literally every day,’ physicist Angelina...

21 March 2006 Moscow dismisses U.S. Congress concern over religious freedom Moscow, March 20, Interfax - The Russian Foreign Ministry has described as strange a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives stating that Russia violates the rights of believers and restricts religious freedom. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the resolution effectively alleges that members of certain religions that are non-traditional for Russia have had problems regarding their registration and the opportunity to freely practice their faith. "Russia, a country whose contemporary civilization has been developing in the Eastern Christian tradition (from 60% to 80% of...

Mar 16 2006 2:02PM Russia, U.S. close to signing WTO deal - ambassador MOSCOW. March 16 (Interfax) - U.S. Ambassador to Russia William Burns has suggested that Russia and the U.S. may soon sign a deal on Russian accession to the World Trade Organization. "We believe we are very close to an agreement, and on the American side we are going to do everything we can to try to complete the deal that is in the interests of both our countries," Burns told Interfax on Thursday. "We are working very hard under the direction of President Bush to try and...

16 March 2006, 12:38 Moscow Patriarchate representative in Europe predicts a gradual severance of relations among Christians Moscow, March 16, Interfax - The Orthodox are appalled at the attempts of the Protestants to force discussion of homosexualism on the World Council of Churches (WCC), representative of the Moscow Patriarchate to the European Institutions bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria said. ‘Attempts of certain Protestant churches to force discussion of sexual minorities on the WCC have provoked a particular indignation of the Orthodox’, the hierarch said in his interview to the web-site of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. According...

17 March 2006, 00:01 Patriarch Alexy backs decision to ban Moscow gay parade Moscow, March 16, (Interfax - Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia has backed Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov's decision to ban a gay parade in the city. The patriarch thanked the mayor in an open letter for his "decision to prevent public propaganda for immorality." The Church "has invariably supported the institution of the family and condemns untraditional relations, seeing them as a vicious deviation from God-given human nature," Alexy II writes. Such an event would be unacceptable, given the current demographic crisis in Russia, the...

Europe satisfied with Gazprom's winter gas supplies 20:10 | 16/ 03/ 2006 (Adds paragraphs 4-6) MOSCOW, March 16 (RIA Novosti) - German, French and Italian representatives said Thursday they had no claims against Russian energy giant Gazprom over winter gas supplies. Georg Adamowitsch, secretary of the German Ministry of Economics and Technology, said, "The winter was very cold in Germany, but no one froze, as we have good natural gas reserves owing to [gas] supplies from Russia." "We had no feeling that agreements with Gazprom on gas supplies were somehow violated due to increased gas consumption during the cold winter,"...

Russian generals and anti-American propagandists would like you to believe that George W. Bush was behind 9/11, or else it was “the Jews.” Anti-Semitism is alive and well today, from the “historical revisionists” who say the holocaust never happened to the obnoxious conspiracy nuts who believe that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are authentic. Anti-American and anti-Jewish propaganda are of a piece. The one set of lies is related to the other, as the fate of the Jewish people in World War II foreshadows the fate of the American people in World War III. Extermination of the hated...

Mar 6 2006 3:23PM Federal budget surplus at 1.613 trillion rubles in 2005 MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - Russia's federal budget surplus stood at 1.613 trillion rubles in 2005, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said on Monday, citing Finance Ministry information. The federal budget surplus was 730 billion rubles in 2004. Federal budget revenue was 5.125 trillion rubles in 2005, against 3.429 trillion rubles in the previous year. Spending, including financial aide to the budget of all levels, was 3.512 trillion rubles, against 2.699 trillion rubles. The budget received 1.026 trillion rubles from value-added tax payments for goods sold...

07 March 2006, 11:46 Serbian hierarch: The problem of Kosovo could become a boomerang on a European scale Moscow, March 7, Interfax - Metropolitan Amfilohy of Montenegro and Primorje thinks that independence of Kosovo would entail negative consequences for the whole Europe. ‘The problem of Kosovo could become a boomerang on an European scale’, Serbian hierarch said in an interview published by Kommersant daily on Tuesday. First, ‘new problems would arise in the Balkans because of the incorrect solution of the problem of Kosovo’ (separation of Kosovo - IF). ‘A precedent would be created, and many people in Europe and...

FBI deputy head positive on US-Russia cooper in fighting terror 08.03.2006, 14.43 TOKYO, March 8 (Itar-Tass) - Deputy Director of the FBI John S. Pistole has said interaction between Russia and the United States in fighting terrorism is positive. He told a briefing in the Japanese capital on Wednesday that cooperation between the United Sates, especially the FBI, on behalf of which Pistole spoke, and Russia, the FSB security service, in particular, is very positive. According to Pistole, the two sides exchange not only information and intelligence data, but also pieces of evidence and analysis with the aim of prevention...

07 March 2006, 15:04 A Muscovite will fast behind the glass in the sealed room to be opened on Easter Moscow, March 7, Interfax - A Muscovite Karim Diab announced a fast behind the glass. He entered an improvised room on the riverbank at the Stroginskaya water meadow and will come out from it in forty-eight days. He will drink water and pray during these days. One can observe him through a glass wall. The door was sealed and will be opened on April 23, Easter, when his action is completed. A scanty interior of Karim’s temporary living quarters consists...

Irina Slutskaya will compete in next world championship Irina Slutskaya decided to take part in figure skating world championship, which will take place in Calgary (Canada) on March 20-26. “I will certainly go to world championship,” stated Slutskaya, who has not been earlier included in the national team. At the same time, Slutskaya does not still know, whether she will compete in the next Olympic Games. “I do not plan so far ahead,” stressed the figure skater, informs UTRO.ru web site. For President of Russian Figure Skating Federation Valentin Piseev, Slutskaya’s decision was surprise. “I am surprised and pleased,” confessed...

Mar 6 2006 1:16PM Abkhazia may support South Ossetia in case of war - official MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - Abkhaz Prime Minister Alexander Ankvab objects to a pullout of Russian peacekeepers from the unrecognized republic and says that Sukhumi might assist South Ossetia if the conflict escalates. "Abkhazia has declared 2006 the year of South Ossetia. No one can deny us the right to help [in case of hostilities in South Ossetia]," he said in an interview published in the Monday issue of the newspaper Vremya Novostei. Ankvab said that he feels very "negative" about the tensions surrounding South...

Mar 6 2006 6:16PM Former Yukos security official faces new murder charges MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has brought new charges against former Yukos security service official Alexei Pichugin, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence. "First Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yury Biryukov has confirmed an indictment and forwarded Court a criminal case opened against [former] director of the Yukos fourth internal and economic security department Pichugin, Vladimir Shapiro, Gennady Tsigelnik, Yevgeny Reshetnikov, Mikhail Ovsyannikov and Vladislav Levin to the Moscow City," a spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Office told Interfax...

06 March 2006 Lent sets in for the Orthodox believers Moscow, March 6, Interfax - On Monday the Orthodox begin to observe Lent. It will last seven weeks and end before Easter, which falls on April 23 this year. The Lent tradition originated in the early, still undivided Christian Church. On the first two days and the last day of Lent, the Church recommends moderation in food, avoiding meat, eggs and milk products. Expectant mothers, the sick and those engaged in hard work can keep a less strict fast. However, the food restriction is not the only Lenten demand. As...

05 March 2006, 20:30 The vicious circle of violence must be stopped in the Holy Land Bishop Mark of Yegoryevsk, vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, answers questions of Interfax-Religion. - Patriarch Alexy met on March 5 with the Hamas delegation on a visit to Moscow. What did the Russian Orthodox Church expect from this meeting? - The invitation of the Hamas was not initiated by us but by the leaders of our state. On the other hand however, representatives of this movement are the force that has been elected through a democratic procedure in the...

06 March 2006, 15:02 Bishop of the Russian Church compares reading Da Vinci Code to being bogged down to a morass Moscow, March 6, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church fears the filming of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code will lead to a division in society. A statement to this effect was made to Interfax by Bishop Mark of Yegoryevsk, vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations. ‘I have not read this book and I am not going to do it, because, having learnt about its contents, I consider it senseless to get bogged, pardon me, to...