Free Republic

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has condemned the legalization of same-sex marriages as a sign of "the coming of the apocalypse." Patriarch Kirill made the statement during his Sunday service at the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square. By legalizing gay marriages, governments in mostly Western countries justify "a choice in favor of sin," Kirill said, Interfax reported. He criticized governments that prevent people who oppose same-sex marriage from showing their opposition. "Those who are true to their conscience in fighting these minority-imposed laws are subject to repression," he said. "It's a very dangerous sign of the apocalypse." "And...

Four Dutch citizens detained by police during a gay rights seminar outside the northern Russian city of Murmansk appeared in a local court Monday for allegedly promoting homosexual relationships among minors, human rights activists and local media reports said. Investigators and migration officials reportedly detained the four, who were making a film about gay rights in Russia, on Sunday afternoon at a campsite during an event for young rights activists. The four were then questioned for about eight hours, said Tatyana Kulbakina, a representative of human rights monitoring organization OGON. Those detained included Kris van der Veen, a gay rights...

The US is pressuring Russia to hand over NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to face espionage charges. However, it routinely denies Russian requests to hand over suspected criminals living in America. “Law agencies asked the US on many occasions to extradite wanted criminals through Interpol channels, but those requests were neither met nor even responded to,” spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry Andrey Pilipchuk said on Monday. He named Ilyas Akhmadov and Tamaz Nalbandov as examples of people living in the US, who Russia unsuccessfully tried to get for prosecution. Akhmadov, a former officer in the Soviet Union’s Red Army, joined...