Hopefully, the shaky truce between Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko, brokered in Minsk by Angela Merkel, will hold.
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To His Excellency
Mr Vladimir Putin
President of the Russian Federation
In the course of this year, you have the honour and the responsibility of presiding over the Group of the twenty largest economies in the world. I am aware that the Russian Federation has participated in this group from the moment of its inception and has always had a positive role to play in the promotion of good governance of the world’s finances, which have been deeply affected by the crisis of 2008.
In today’s highly interdependent context, a global financial framework with its own just and clear rules is required in order to achieve a more equitable and fraternal world, in which it is possible to overcome hunger, ensure decent employment and housing for all, as well as essential healthcare. Your presidency of the G20 this year has committed itself to consolidating the reform of the international financial organizations and to achieving a consensus on financial standards suited to today’s circumstances. However, the world economy will only develop if it allows a dignified way of life for all human beings, from the eldest to the unborn child, not just for citizens of the G20 member states but for every inhabitant of the earth, even those in extreme social situations or in the remotest places.
From this standpoint, it is clear that, for the world’s peoples, armed conflicts are always a deliberate negation of international harmony, and create profound divisions and deep wounds which require many years to heal. Wars are a concrete refusal to pursue the great economic and social goals that the international community has set itself, as seen, for example, in the Millennium Development Goals. Unfortunately, the many armed conflicts which continue to afflict the world today present us daily with dramatic images of misery, hunger, illness and death. Without peace, there can be no form of economic development. Violence never begets peace, the necessary condition for development.
The meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the twenty most powerful economies, with two-thirds of the world’s population and ninety per cent of global GDP, does not have international security as its principal purpose. Nevertheless, the meeting will surely not forget the situation in the Middle East and particularly in Syria. It is regrettable that, from the very beginning of the conflict in Syria, one-sided interests have prevailed and in fact hindered the search for a solution that would have avoided the senseless massacre now unfolding. The leaders of the G20 cannot remain indifferent to the dramatic situation of the beloved Syrian people which has lasted far too long, and even risks bringing greater suffering to a region bitterly tested by strife and needful of peace. To the leaders present, to each and every one, I make a heartfelt appeal for them to help find ways to overcome the conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution. Rather, let there be a renewed commitment to seek, with courage and determination, a peaceful solution through dialogue and negotiation of the parties, unanimously supported by the international community. Moreover, all governments have the moral duty to do everything possible to ensure humanitarian assistance to those suffering because of the conflict, both within and beyond the country’s borders.
Mr President, in the hope that these thoughts may be a valid spiritual contribution to your meeting, I pray for the successful outcome of the G20’s work on this occasion. I invoke an abundance of blessings upon the Summit in Saint Petersburg, upon the participants and the citizens of the member states, and upon the work and efforts of the 2013 Russian Presidency of the G20.
While requesting your prayers, I take this opportunity to assure you, Mr President, of my highest consideration.
From the Vatican, 4 September 2013
FRANCIS
The culture war has gone global.Everywhere a man will be sure to meet at least once in his life something that is unlike anything he had happened to see before. – Nikolai Gogol
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A photo of a bare-chested Vladimir Putin strolling along a rustic stream, fishing rod in hand was one of the more amazing images of the early 21st Century. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, but he was wearing a crucifix. Consider here that Russia’s first citizen was a former member of a godless Communist Party in the former Soviet Union; indeed, the station chief for the KGB in East Germany. At some point after Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin must have had a “road to Damascus” moment; a point where he cast off the conventional wisdom, the old ideology, and plotted a new course with a new moral compass. The cold warriors of Communism had been the enemies of all religions; but now, a president and prime minister becomes a defender of the Russian faith.
The US leader is celebrating his birthday on the 4th of August.
In a stunning example of the resurgence of Christianity in general and the Russian Orthodox Church in particular, President Medvedev marked the adoption of Christianity in 988 with a new public holiday. This is the latest demonstration of the Kremlin's support for an Orthodox Church that has grown increasingly powerful since the fall of Communism. Some rights groups have criticized the new holiday, approved by President Dmitry Medvedev, as undermining Russia's secular constitution.
To read "Is Russia more Christian than the United States?" Click here
Marking the anniversary Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, held a liturgy in Kiev, the capital of modern Ukraine and mediaeval Kievan Rus, whose leader Prince Vladimir made Christianity the state religion more than 1,000 years ago.
Reuters reported the Patriarch as saying "Facing aggressive atheism and resurgent paganism we remain firm in our belief in God,"
Since the fall of the Soviet Union almost 20 years ago, the Orthodox Church has undergone a revival as Russia's leaders have endorsed it as the country's main faith.
Vladimir Putin, after lighting a candle in Veliky Novgorod's Saint Sophia Cathedral, said "This was an event of colossal significance ... Russia made a historical choice"
Many believe such an official State recognition of a religious event would be impossible in the United States.
Reuters reported :
"It is really cool that this is finally happening. It's good young people know about our history," said Anton, a 22-year-old artist. Retired engineer Zina looked on. "I regularly go to church and maybe this will encourage others," she told Reuters. The trend toward consolidation of the church as a national force in Russia has worried its 20-million strong Muslim population -- a seventh of Russia's people -- as well as those who believe church and state should be strictly separated.
July 28 was celebrated in Russia en masse twice before -- in 1888 and 1988 -- but significantly Wednesday's holiday was the first time it was marked on a state level.
Its millennium celebration in 1988 under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was widely considered a turning point for the church's revival while Russia still lived under Communism.
"Make no mistake about how Russians will understand this event. Putin will say to them: “You see, not only will they not help you fight for democracy, they will march against you. They will help me crush you.”The following are highlights of the parade in Red Square. The U.S. Army's 18th Infantry Regiment, stationed in Baumholder, Germany, can be seen at 07:03 on the video. The socialist governments of France and the United Kingdom also sent military units.
When I read the news on March 18, I was ashamed to call myself an American, ashamed to admit that Barack Obama was my president.
I learned in a tiny Internet blurb from the Associated Press that the U.S. Embassy in Moscow had confirmed that on May 9, 2010, American soldiers would march in the infamous military parade through Red Square alongside the neo-Soviet army of proud KGB spy Vladimir Putin. Obama wants U.S. soldiers to help the Kremlin celebrate the 65th anniversary of the allied victory over Nazi Germany. British and French soldiers, it seems, will also take part.
All part of the now infamous Obama “reset” on Russia. Next stop for U.S. troops? Maybe a similar parade in Tehran?
Make no mistake about how Russians will understand this event. Putin will say to them: “You see, not only will they not help you fight for democracy, they will march against you. They will help me crush you.” Meanwhile Russian propagandists lose no opportunity to divide and conquer the West, even going so far as to buzz Alaska with nuclear bombers on a routine basis.
The reporting of the item was so obscure, one could almost have thought Obama was ashamed of his decision — as well he might have been.
Two days later, a massive wave of protests swept Russia, in a coordinated move by the opposition known as “Day of Anger.” The Russian government outlawed the protests, shut down the website that was organizing them, preemptively arrested activist leaders, and then conducted mass arrests of those who dared to show their faces on the streets. Obama said nothing in support of these freedom fighters.
The contrast between the craven actions of the Obama administration and the valiant stand being taken by activists within Russia could not be more disturbing. America can clearly be seen betraying the bedrock principles upon which it was founded, allowing a vehemently anti-American regime to consolidate power in Moscow, and supplying aid and comfort to American enemies across the globe. Obama is rapidly becoming a president who will live in infamy.
Signs of popular unrest are growing daily in Putin’s Russia as the KGB regime further and further compresses personal freedom and civil society, and more and more badly bungles the management of the economy. A recent news report and YouTube video showed today’s Russia in microscosm: Workers assigned to build the Sochi 2014 Olympics venues are going unpaid, starving, and living in slum conditions, because the Kremlin, strapped for cash and hopelessly corrupt, cannot pay them. Russia spent five times more preparing its athletes for the 2010 Olympics compared to 2006, and collected one-third fewer medals.
Obama got a taste, though, of how Putin treats his own countrymen when he sent Hillary Clinton to Moscow begging for a renewal of the START treaty, which lapsed months ago despite Obama’s much ballyhooed “reset” of relations, of which sending U.S. soldiers to Red Square is an obvious part. Putin chose just that moment to announce he would press forward in helping Iran to light up a nuclear power plant even as Clinton courts world sanctions against that rogue nation because of its nuclear weapons secrecy.
Seasoned Latvian diplomat Sandra Kalniete urges Obama to remember a little American history. In the past, she writes, Americans understood that while one might seek to make deals with the Russian government in the interests of world security, it was imperative to simultaneously reach out to the “second Russia” being oppressed by the first. Obama, in the manner of Neville Chamberlain, seems to have forgotten about this equation and to have firmly turned down the road of appeasement.
One hopeful sign, however, is that Senator John McCain seems to have at last gotten the message. On March 17, he rose dramatically on the floor of the U.S. Senate to demand action from the Obama administration. McCain declared:
I had an opportunity the other week to meet with one of these brave Russian champions of human dignity and freedom — a man by the name of Boris Nemtsov. Mr. Nemtsov is but one of the many Russians who believe that their country deserves a government that enshrines the human rights of its people in an inviolable rule of law that allows citizens to hold their leaders accountable through a real democratic process. I asked Mr. Nemtsov what we in Washington could do to support the cause of human rights in Russia, and he simply said: “Speak up for it. And speak up for us.” It is my pleasure to do just that today.
Russia expert Vladmir Kara-Murza writes of Nemtsov: “Kremlin propagandists would have the outside world believe that its puppet ‘parliament’ and its sanctioned ‘opposition’ parties represent the full spectrum of views in Russian society. The Solidarity leader’s meetings on Capitol Hill are proof that the world knows better.” Perhaps the Congress and the world know, but does Barack Obama? Nemtsov may have been too ambitious in his plea for assistance. Perhaps he ought to simply have asked that the U.S. not make things worse by sending military forces to Red Square.
McCain has been shockingly silent on Russia since Obama defeated him, apparently out of respect for the presidency. But now he has seen too much. It is one thing for Obama to ignore the need to speak up for American value; it’s quite something else for him to send U.S. troops to march alongside the forces of the man who is leading the attack upon them. McCain must now lead Republicans back to the forefront of U.S. foreign policy, demanding that Obama cease his reckless course of appeasement and stand behind his oath of office.
And all Americans of good conscience should write their elected representatives and demand that U.S. soldiers break their date with the neo-Soviet empire of Vladimir Putin.
Kim Zigfeld is a New York City-based writer who publishes her own Russia specialty blog, La Russophobe. She also writes about Russia for the American Thinker and for Russia! magazine and is researching a book on the rise of dictatorship in Putin’s Russia.
