Posted on 09/23/2014 6:04:34 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
SLAVYANSK, Ukraine - Peter Dudnik is convinced that the masked gunmen swallowing up large swaths of eastern Ukraine are a serious threat to evangelical Christians.
Dudnik is a senior leader of Good News Church in Slavyansk, Ukraine. In an exclusive interview, Dudnik told CBN News the pro-Russian rebels "didn't treat Christians well because they consider the Orthodox Church far superior than any other church."
"They also believe that Protestant Christians are American spies and since America is the enemy, evangelical Christians are also the enemy," he explained.
Armed Priests Seize Church
Dudnik should know. On April 12, insurgents armed with Kalashnikovs took control of his city. Days later some of those men showed up at his church.
"They came to our church and said 'We are going to live here.' They arrested our senior pastor. I told them I wanted to go with him but they refused," he recalled.
Good News is the largest evangelical church in Slavyansk.
"The rebels told us we couldn't hold our services anymore. Then two Orthodox priests, including one armed with a gun, said our church belonged to them and that they would start holding services in it," Dudnik said.
It was a dangerous time for people living in Slavyansk.
"Yes, life in our city changed dramatically. The people who had the guns were calling the shots," Dudnik said.
Not only did the Orthodox priests take over his church for services, Dudnik says rebels used the church basement to store bullets, rocket launchers and other artillery equipment. CBN News obtained exclusive pictures of the church basement.
"I was so shocked to see those images because the whole basement was filled with weapons. You can see hundreds of boxes that could fit in at least three big trucks. Some of the boxes contained mines, grenade launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition," Dudnik said.
And then there's a video which was uploaded to YouTube by a rebel soldier showing two Russian tanks in the back of Dudnik's church compound.
"When I saw this on the Internet I was horrified!" Dudnik said. "You can hear the rebels giving the tank operator coordinates to target Ukrainian army positions. The entire time I'm watching the video I was expecting the Ukrainians to fire back and end up destroying my church. Thank God that didn't happen!"
An Unholy Alliance?
Then Dudnik revealed what shocked him most. As the tanks fired their payloads, two priests were videotaped standing behind the tanks -- next to the church's back door - reciting Orthodox prayers.
"You can tell the priests are there to give rebels spiritual support, to bless their mission, to pray for them. I've even seen videos of Orthodox priests blessing tanks before going into battle," he said.
Dudnik says Russian media has accused him and other evangelical leaders of starting the chaos in the country. Dudnik says he's even been accused of collaborating with the Ukrainian army - charges he flatly denies.
Dudnik believes the Russian Orthodox Church is using the rebels to silence evangelicals in the east. Some Christian leaders likened it to Islamic radicals' brutal campaign in the Mideast, calling it "Orthodox jihad."
"The war in my country is more than just about the capture of Ukrainian territory or a change in the government," he told CBN News. "There's a real war against the Protestant Church by radical elements within the Russian Orthodox Church."
A recent New York Times investigation says there's mounting evidence of ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and pro-Russian rebels. A claim Moscow and Orthodox officials have denied.
To get an Orthodox perspective, CBN News wanted to interview one of Slavyansk's top priests with reported ties to the Russian Orthodox Church. But Father Nikolai Fomenko refused and repeatedly asked us to turn off our cameras.
He eventually agreed but not before trying to confiscate our microphones and camera. CBN News asked why Orthodox priests would conduct prayers during a pro-Russian rebel offensive inside an evangelical church compound.
"This is false information," Father Fomenko told CBN News. "I can you tell you this is 100 percent false. This video has been edited to make it look like that. You can do anything these days. I tell you 100 percent this is a lie!"
CBN News asked Fomenko if he supported the pro-Russian insurgents. He refused to answer. Instead gave us the following analysis of situation:
"The media is at fault -- go ahead! You can you record this!" Fomenko said. "The mass media is sowing confusion and conflict among people. Also, you are trying to drag the Orthodox Church into this and put us in a dark light."
He insisted the Orthodox Church remains neutral and doesn't take sides in the conflict.
In early July, Ukrainian troops recaptured the city of Slavyansk from the pro-Russian rebels. Dudnik's church was returned to him. The city is slowly rebuilding.
You should get to know Russia before you rush to defend it. Russia is a country of 100 percent corruption. Even most of Putin's political opponents are agents of the Kremlin, and so they Mitt Romney their campaigns. Most of those votes come from Putin's henchmen stuffing ballots. In Chechnya, for example, Putin and his party received 90 percent of the vote in soviet style elections of high turnout, and Putin has taken away most power to appoint governors and other local posts.
"International monitors say the March 4 presidential election that swept Prime Minister Vladimir Putin back into the Kremlin was unfair, while Russian volunteer monitors denounce widespread voting fraud. Most of the alleged irregularities reported are time-tested tactics observed in previous elections. But the election also yielded some innovations.
Ballot Stuffing And Vote-Count Fraud
This is the most traditional example of electoral fraud, which consists of "stuffing" multiple ballots into the ballot box. This can be done by individual voters or by polling station officials who "pad" the ballot box either before or after the vote.
Russian polling station officials also have a long history of fudging the numbers on election protocols after election monitors leave the station at the end of the day. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the vote count in the March 4 election was faulty in almost one-third of the polling stations that it observed."
http://www.rferl.org/content/russia_election_fraud_tactics_putin/24505805.html
There are even videos of Russkies just stuffing ballots. They don't even bother to hide it, and people do not resist because you get beaten or put in jail for causing public disorder.
“You should get to know Russia”
It sounds like you’re a real expert with your fabricated whopper that 90% of Russians are not politically active.
Maybe all the internet copy and pasting from your last post helped to mask the embarrassment of it.
I stand by the number, while you can stand by mass fraud and criminality. It wasn't even a random choice expressing merely a majority, but what I took from a Polish Journalist:
POLISH JOURNALIST: I visited Moscow in November 2012 and I was witnessing “Russkiy Marsh” – a huge demonstration of Russian, anti-Putin, nationalist opposition. I’ve talked with these people, and most of them were saying that Putin is a thief and a communist thug who is destroying Russia. There were a few thousand people at this demonstration – cramped on a small street on the banks of the River Moskva (the only place where they are allowed to protest) – but the crowd was larger at a nearby Putin concert. Later I checked the Russian, Polish, and Western media. All of them were saying that the people of the “Russkiy Marsh” were only a bunch of bloodthirsty neo-Nazis who are supporting Breivik and Mitt Romney. The Russian media was saying that the demonstrators were chanting “Romney vpyeryod!” “Go, Romney, go!”
NYQUIST: [So these people don't count?]
POLISH JOURNALIST: Ninety percent of Russian society is politically inactive – they are brainwashed by TV or they don’t want to endanger themselves by becoming involved in politics. The most active part of this society are anti-Putin nationalists, supporters of Navalny, etc. So Putin is inflaming extreme nationalism, not only to consolidate his position and rally the nation around a dictator, but also to steal the support from his opposition. I think that after the nationalist hype falls away, many Russians will be disenchanted with Putin. They were supporting him because he gave them “economic stability.” [But failure here] will not lead to revolution, but [a loss of stability] would support Putin’s rivals among the “elite” (I think the GRU and Shoigu are trying to undermine him). The most interesting thing is how this power struggle could influence the situation in countries like Poland. I wonder why guys like Gen. Stanislaw Kozeij (the real handler of President Komorowski) are suddenly supporting a U.S. military presence in Poland.
http://www.jrnyquist.com/ukraine-as-strategic-stepping-stone.html
If you want to stand by Russkie poll numbers and election results, go for it. Maybe as you do your research, it will open your eyes.
That’s interesting how you convinced yourself that only 10% of Russians vote when turnout in the last election was 60%.
You are still talking? Quit trolling me.
....”Baseless claims of being a hater is a great way to shut down free thought and useful conversation”......
That IS the intent and a tactic....if one can ‘silence’ debate and conversation then truth is never heard nor revealed.
Kind of like calling all Ukrainians Nazis.
...”Ukrainians Nazis”...
Well they do have a voice and then some in Ukraine as all know. How they approach what they want is debatable as well known for their violence and creating such.
Poroshenko’s approach to handling them is putting them in combat units and creating other units for them. Otherwise they’ll be on the streets protesting him..which they have already done.
Like Putin sending his undesireables to fight in Ukraine, no?
Two Baptist church planters got asked to leave by denying visa renewals...both home now
Ukranians torn between Russian.oney andprestige and freedom
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