Orthodox believers near Yalta in the Crimea
______________________________
This Sunday will be a very important one for us here in the Ukraine. If the vote in the Crimea is in favour of closer ties with Russia and no longer to be tied to Kiev and the Ukraine, Fr Daniel and I, as well as the nuns in this monastery and the monastery itself, could face provocative reactions by Ukrainian nationalists (with the non-canonical Kiev Patriarchate), the Banderovtsy, as well as others who sided with the Nazis during World War II. Fr Daniel and I are Americans; all the nuns here at the monastery are Ukrainian, and speak Ukrainian amongst themselves, but they can also speak Russian. Kiev is the birthplace of Rus, which connects the Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus together with a common heritage, culture, and Orthodox faith. Twenty-five years ago, the language spoken in common by these three countries was Russian. Between World War I and World War II, perhaps, except for the Uniates in the Lvov area, everyone here considered themselves Russians living in the Ukraine. Twenty-five years ago, the Orthodox Churches here were all in communion with the MP. Now, the Ukraine has an autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church in communion with the MP (us) and the Kiev Patriarchate, which is in communion with no other Orthodox Church, it’s considered uncanonical by all. In another posting, following this e-mail, will be a film of nationalists, along with a Kiev Patriarchate “priest”, breaking into and desecrating one of our churches. In the film, they chant a prayer as well as, “Glory to Ukraine, Glory to the Heroes, Glory to the Nation… a pike for the Moskali (Russians), a knife for the Moskali (Russians)”. Yet, even we, who aren’t ethnic Russians, are fearful of these nationalist fanatics, even though the CIA says that no one here is under threat.
Today is the (Thronal) feast of the patron of our monastery, the venerable martyr, St Evdokia. Our Archbishop was here today, and he warned us that there might be provocations. However, we aren’t politicians here; our job is to pray for peace and for the country. I urge you to read the following points. It’s the rest of the story; one that you’re not getting on American news, or from Mr Obama, or Mr Kerry, or Mrs Clinton. As a final note… the thought that the political opposition in the Ukraine hired snipers to kill both security police as well as demonstrators wasn’t at first taken seriously. Now, people are looking at it, and taking it so seriously… some now are blaming the USA for hiring the snipers or for having sent their own snipers, and the USA is suggesting that it was Russia that did that dirty deed… and, yes, it was dirty! However, they did achieve their desired end, for the Right Sector (the far right) not only took control of the demonstrations in the Kiev square, but managed to overthrow the legally elected government… corrupt though it was… and put many of their pals in power. By the way, they’re still camping on the “Maidan”, so that if they don’t approve of what this coup’s government does, they can throw those bums out, too!
14 March 2014
Fr Alexander Cutler
No URL available (sent to me via private e-mail from a Cabineteer)
******
(the following was part of the e-mail sent to me)
The Threat to Peace is Real
Backfiring sanctions, warships with guided missiles heading for the Black Sea, F-15 fighter jets on Russia’s border… as in so many Latin American and other countries (“banana republics”) in the past, Washington has recognised and committed more than 5 billion USD (183 billion Roubles. 5.55 billion CAD. 5.54 billion AUD. 3.6 billion Euros. 3 billion UK Pounds) to an illegal right-wing government that seized power from elected officials in Kiev. The CIA and MI5-fed Western media always lie about the reasons for war, from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Libya and Syria. Here are ten things the media won’t tell you about what’s happening in the Ukraine.
1. Washington planned the coup in the Ukraine
A leaked tape recording revealed that US State Department official Victoria Nuland was plotting who would be the next head of the Ukraine. She bragged that the USA spent 5 billion USD funding the “democracy” movement there. Senator John McCain and EU Baroness Ashton went to Kiev, spoke at rallies, and had their pictures taken with the leader of the Fascist Svoboda party. Neo-Nazi forces took over buildings and threw out the elected government in a coup d’etat, then, passed new laws with no quorum in the parliament building; some elected representatives weren’t even allowed inside by thugs standing guard outside with baseball bats. Intent on destabilising the Ukraine, the Western policy is in fact to divide and rule.
2. There has been no Russian invasion
Western officials threatened Russia for “invading” the Ukraine, an artificial Communist-devised country consisting of a small part of eastern Poland and a large chunk of western Russia, that’s existed for only 23 years. This is a lie meant to cover up Western involvement in the coup. Russia rents a military base in Crimea, part of Russia for 200 years until 1954, and is legally allowed to station up to 25,000 troops there. Russia merely said that it might act to protect civilians, if the neo-Nazis in Kiev threaten them. As for the Crimea, the people are to vote in a democratic referendum on Sunday about if they wish to be governed by the neo-Nazi junta in Kiev or join Russia. Apparently, the West is against democracy and self-determination in the Crimea, even though it’s for it in Kosovo, Scotland, and elsewhere in the world.
3. The American war buildup
The US Navy deployed the USS Truxton, a warship armed with guided missiles, to the Black Sea. The USA sent 6 F-15 fighter jets and 60 military personnel to Lithuania, in addition to those already stationed there. The USA and EU are imposing sanctions and travel bans on Russian officials. Western politicians and the tabloid media compared the democratically elected and immensely popular Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Western leader Hitler. When preparing for war, the West always uses this bogus comparison to demonise leaders of opponent countries.
4. Neo-Nazis dominate the new government
The openly racist, anti-Semitic, and pro-Hitler Svoboda party is one of three major parties in the government. Svoboda led the street actions that forced elected President Yanukovich to flee. The Right Sector, armed fascists from Galicia (the far west of the Ukraine, formerly Polish territory), who’ve beaten opponents and vandalised public property, are now in charge of the military. Immediately after the coup, the Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Reuven Azman, urged Jews to flee Kiev. The government’s first act was to ban the use of Russian (83 percent of Ukrainians use this language in everyday life) and other languages as official languages. They’ve beaten opponents of the coup, or dissidents disappear, or thugs vandalise and burn their offices and homes.
5. Coup leaders hired snipers to justify their takeover
A leaked call between Estonian and European Union officials reveals that people behind the new government hired snipers to kill protesters and police in Kiev. There are between 3,000 and 5,500 foreign mercenaries in Kiev. However, they blamed President Yanukovich for the killings, using this to justify the coup.
6. Big business wants to control the Ukraine… and Russia
Oil and gas pipelines in the Ukraine bring fuel from Russia to Europe. Big business wants to control the pipelines to cut the flow from Russia and increase their own profits and even take over Russian resources.
7. NATO’s drive to expand
As part of the Western drive to dismantle Russia, the Pentagon wants to establish military bases and missiles on the Ukraine/Russia border. The American-run NATO alliance expanded aggressively into Eastern Europe in the past 20 years, adding 12 countries so far. US/NATO forces continue to occupy Afghanistan to the south.
8. Billions for the illegal coup in the Ukraine, cuts for food stamps in the USA
In early February, Congress and the Obama administration agreed to cut food assistance benefits for hungry families by 8.7 billion USD (318 billion Roubles. 9.66 billion CAD. 9.64 billion AUD. 6.26 billion Euros. 5.24 billion UK Pounds), claiming there’s no money. Yet, just weeks later, they announced 10 billion USD (386 billion Roubles. 11.1 billion CAD. 11.08 billion AUD. 7.2 billion Euros. 6 billion UK Pounds) in assistance to the bankrupt neo-Nazis in Kiev. Secretary of State John Kerry personally delivered the first billion (38.6 billion Roubles. 1.11 billion CAD. 1.108 billion AUD. 720 million Euros. 600 million UK Pounds) on 4 March.
9. Power for the oligarchs
The new régime appointed wealthy oligarchs as governors of rebellious regions of Eastern Ukraine. It also agreed to an IMF austerity plan drafted by Washington to cut workers’ pensions, unemployment insurance, and social programmes… just like the cutbacks workers in Greece and elsewhere faced from the EU.
10. People across the Ukraine are resisting
People in the Eastern, Southern, and Northern Ukraine are resisting the coup. Some took over regional and city buildings and refused to hand them over to the junta. Others marched on military bases, demanding that the troops disobey the commands of the neo-Nazis in Kiev. Most of the Ukrainian Navy defected to the side of the people, as did also parts of the small Ukrainian Air Force. Ukrainian troops are refusing to obey orders from the junta in Kiev. Some are pleading with the Russian government to protect and help them against the Euro terrorists in Kiev. The people of the Ukraine remember well what Nazi rule was like during World War II and they won’t stand for it again.
Fr Andrew Philips
No URL available (part of the e-mail cited above)
Voices from Russia 
An American Monastic in the Ukraine Speaks Up: This Weekend Critical
Tags: Christian, Christianity, Crimea, Eastern Orthodox Church, John McCain, Kiev, Moscow Patriarchate, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, political commentary, politics, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Russia, Russian, Russian Orthodox Church, Soviet Union, Ukraine, Ukrainian, United States, USA, USSR
Orthodox believers near Yalta in the Crimea
______________________________
This Sunday will be a very important one for us here in the Ukraine. If the vote in the Crimea is in favour of closer ties with Russia and no longer to be tied to Kiev and the Ukraine, Fr Daniel and I, as well as the nuns in this monastery and the monastery itself, could face provocative reactions by Ukrainian nationalists (with the non-canonical Kiev Patriarchate), the Banderovtsy, as well as others who sided with the Nazis during World War II. Fr Daniel and I are Americans; all the nuns here at the monastery are Ukrainian, and speak Ukrainian amongst themselves, but they can also speak Russian. Kiev is the birthplace of Rus, which connects the Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus together with a common heritage, culture, and Orthodox faith. Twenty-five years ago, the language spoken in common by these three countries was Russian. Between World War I and World War II, perhaps, except for the Uniates in the Lvov area, everyone here considered themselves Russians living in the Ukraine. Twenty-five years ago, the Orthodox Churches here were all in communion with the MP. Now, the Ukraine has an autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church in communion with the MP (us) and the Kiev Patriarchate, which is in communion with no other Orthodox Church, it’s considered uncanonical by all. In another posting, following this e-mail, will be a film of nationalists, along with a Kiev Patriarchate “priest”, breaking into and desecrating one of our churches. In the film, they chant a prayer as well as, “Glory to Ukraine, Glory to the Heroes, Glory to the Nation… a pike for the Moskali (Russians), a knife for the Moskali (Russians)”. Yet, even we, who aren’t ethnic Russians, are fearful of these nationalist fanatics, even though the CIA says that no one here is under threat.
Today is the (Thronal) feast of the patron of our monastery, the venerable martyr, St Evdokia. Our Archbishop was here today, and he warned us that there might be provocations. However, we aren’t politicians here; our job is to pray for peace and for the country. I urge you to read the following points. It’s the rest of the story; one that you’re not getting on American news, or from Mr Obama, or Mr Kerry, or Mrs Clinton. As a final note… the thought that the political opposition in the Ukraine hired snipers to kill both security police as well as demonstrators wasn’t at first taken seriously. Now, people are looking at it, and taking it so seriously… some now are blaming the USA for hiring the snipers or for having sent their own snipers, and the USA is suggesting that it was Russia that did that dirty deed… and, yes, it was dirty! However, they did achieve their desired end, for the Right Sector (the far right) not only took control of the demonstrations in the Kiev square, but managed to overthrow the legally elected government… corrupt though it was… and put many of their pals in power. By the way, they’re still camping on the “Maidan”, so that if they don’t approve of what this coup’s government does, they can throw those bums out, too!
14 March 2014
Fr Alexander Cutler
No URL available (sent to me via private e-mail from a Cabineteer)
******
(the following was part of the e-mail sent to me)
The Threat to Peace is Real
Backfiring sanctions, warships with guided missiles heading for the Black Sea, F-15 fighter jets on Russia’s border… as in so many Latin American and other countries (“banana republics”) in the past, Washington has recognised and committed more than 5 billion USD (183 billion Roubles. 5.55 billion CAD. 5.54 billion AUD. 3.6 billion Euros. 3 billion UK Pounds) to an illegal right-wing government that seized power from elected officials in Kiev. The CIA and MI5-fed Western media always lie about the reasons for war, from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Libya and Syria. Here are ten things the media won’t tell you about what’s happening in the Ukraine.
1. Washington planned the coup in the Ukraine
A leaked tape recording revealed that US State Department official Victoria Nuland was plotting who would be the next head of the Ukraine. She bragged that the USA spent 5 billion USD funding the “democracy” movement there. Senator John McCain and EU Baroness Ashton went to Kiev, spoke at rallies, and had their pictures taken with the leader of the Fascist Svoboda party. Neo-Nazi forces took over buildings and threw out the elected government in a coup d’etat, then, passed new laws with no quorum in the parliament building; some elected representatives weren’t even allowed inside by thugs standing guard outside with baseball bats. Intent on destabilising the Ukraine, the Western policy is in fact to divide and rule.
2. There has been no Russian invasion
Western officials threatened Russia for “invading” the Ukraine, an artificial Communist-devised country consisting of a small part of eastern Poland and a large chunk of western Russia, that’s existed for only 23 years. This is a lie meant to cover up Western involvement in the coup. Russia rents a military base in Crimea, part of Russia for 200 years until 1954, and is legally allowed to station up to 25,000 troops there. Russia merely said that it might act to protect civilians, if the neo-Nazis in Kiev threaten them. As for the Crimea, the people are to vote in a democratic referendum on Sunday about if they wish to be governed by the neo-Nazi junta in Kiev or join Russia. Apparently, the West is against democracy and self-determination in the Crimea, even though it’s for it in Kosovo, Scotland, and elsewhere in the world.
3. The American war buildup
The US Navy deployed the USS Truxton, a warship armed with guided missiles, to the Black Sea. The USA sent 6 F-15 fighter jets and 60 military personnel to Lithuania, in addition to those already stationed there. The USA and EU are imposing sanctions and travel bans on Russian officials. Western politicians and the tabloid media compared the democratically elected and immensely popular Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Western leader Hitler. When preparing for war, the West always uses this bogus comparison to demonise leaders of opponent countries.
4. Neo-Nazis dominate the new government
The openly racist, anti-Semitic, and pro-Hitler Svoboda party is one of three major parties in the government. Svoboda led the street actions that forced elected President Yanukovich to flee. The Right Sector, armed fascists from Galicia (the far west of the Ukraine, formerly Polish territory), who’ve beaten opponents and vandalised public property, are now in charge of the military. Immediately after the coup, the Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Reuven Azman, urged Jews to flee Kiev. The government’s first act was to ban the use of Russian (83 percent of Ukrainians use this language in everyday life) and other languages as official languages. They’ve beaten opponents of the coup, or dissidents disappear, or thugs vandalise and burn their offices and homes.
5. Coup leaders hired snipers to justify their takeover
A leaked call between Estonian and European Union officials reveals that people behind the new government hired snipers to kill protesters and police in Kiev. There are between 3,000 and 5,500 foreign mercenaries in Kiev. However, they blamed President Yanukovich for the killings, using this to justify the coup.
6. Big business wants to control the Ukraine… and Russia
Oil and gas pipelines in the Ukraine bring fuel from Russia to Europe. Big business wants to control the pipelines to cut the flow from Russia and increase their own profits and even take over Russian resources.
7. NATO’s drive to expand
As part of the Western drive to dismantle Russia, the Pentagon wants to establish military bases and missiles on the Ukraine/Russia border. The American-run NATO alliance expanded aggressively into Eastern Europe in the past 20 years, adding 12 countries so far. US/NATO forces continue to occupy Afghanistan to the south.
8. Billions for the illegal coup in the Ukraine, cuts for food stamps in the USA
In early February, Congress and the Obama administration agreed to cut food assistance benefits for hungry families by 8.7 billion USD (318 billion Roubles. 9.66 billion CAD. 9.64 billion AUD. 6.26 billion Euros. 5.24 billion UK Pounds), claiming there’s no money. Yet, just weeks later, they announced 10 billion USD (386 billion Roubles. 11.1 billion CAD. 11.08 billion AUD. 7.2 billion Euros. 6 billion UK Pounds) in assistance to the bankrupt neo-Nazis in Kiev. Secretary of State John Kerry personally delivered the first billion (38.6 billion Roubles. 1.11 billion CAD. 1.108 billion AUD. 720 million Euros. 600 million UK Pounds) on 4 March.
9. Power for the oligarchs
The new régime appointed wealthy oligarchs as governors of rebellious regions of Eastern Ukraine. It also agreed to an IMF austerity plan drafted by Washington to cut workers’ pensions, unemployment insurance, and social programmes… just like the cutbacks workers in Greece and elsewhere faced from the EU.
10. People across the Ukraine are resisting
People in the Eastern, Southern, and Northern Ukraine are resisting the coup. Some took over regional and city buildings and refused to hand them over to the junta. Others marched on military bases, demanding that the troops disobey the commands of the neo-Nazis in Kiev. Most of the Ukrainian Navy defected to the side of the people, as did also parts of the small Ukrainian Air Force. Ukrainian troops are refusing to obey orders from the junta in Kiev. Some are pleading with the Russian government to protect and help them against the Euro terrorists in Kiev. The people of the Ukraine remember well what Nazi rule was like during World War II and they won’t stand for it again.
Fr Andrew Philips
No URL available (part of the e-mail cited above)
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