Bart to Attend Pope Francisco’s Inauguration

Bart‘s the Vatican‘s lapdog… this image proves it.

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Vatican Radio said that the Ecumenical Patriarch would attend a papal inaugural mass for the first time since the Great Schism between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The presence of the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Archontonis, who claims to be the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, at Pope Francisco’s official Inaugural Mass in St Peter’s Square on 19 March, is widely regarded as a sign of further improvement in relations between the two church bodies.

Earlier, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew welcomed the election of Pope Francisco Bergoglio with a warm message of congratulations, saying, “I want to express the hope and the certainty that the Holy Father will contribute to the peace of an already battered humanity, for the poor and the suffering”. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who shared friendly relationships with John Paul II Wojtyła and Benedict XVI Ratzinger, said that newly-elected Pope Francisco “will give a new impetus to the two churches’ journey towards unity”.

The Great Schism was the medieval separation of Chalcedonian Christianity into Eastern Orthodox (Greek) and Roman Catholic (Latin) churches. Ecclesiastical differences and theological disputes, including the procession of the Holy Spirit (“filioque“), whether one should use leavened or unleavened bread in the Eucharist, the Pope of Rome’s claim to universal jurisdiction, and the place of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople amongst the Pentarchy long embittered relations between Orthodox and Catholics. The formal start of the schism was in 1054 {there were many long periods of breakage in communion before then… 1054 was an attempt at reconciliation gone wrong: editor}.

Emperors, popes, and patriarchs made efforts in subsequent centuries to heal the rift. However, a number of factors and historical events worked to widen the separation over time. The relations between Orthodox and Catholics eventually showed signs of improvement, especially after the Second Vatican Council, known as Vatican II, when Pope Paul VI Montini and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras Spyrou {a pro-American cleric installed after Langley instigated a coup against socialist-leaning pro-Soviet Patriarch Maximos Vaportzis in 1948: editor} voiced a joint expression of regret for many of the past actions that had led up to the Great Schism in the Catholic-Orthodox Joint Declaration of 1965. Patriarch Bartholomew, elected the 273rd Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in October 1991, visited the Vatican for the first time in June 1995. John Paul II was the first pope since the Great Schism to visit an Eastern Orthodox country (Romania) in May 1999.

16 March 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/world/20130316/180051934/Orthodox-Church-Leader-to-Attend-Pope-Francis-Inauguration——.html

Editor’s Note:

Despite all of Bart’s pretentions, the REAL primus inter pares amongst Orthodox is HH… the MP IS the 400-kilo (882 pounds) bear in the room, whilst the EP is an American-paid-and-directed 40-kilo (88 pounds) weakling. Everybody knows this, and it drives Bart batty to no end. Let’s not be coy… the Curia was watching to see who the Centre would send as a delegation… they knew that they had Bart in their pocket; they always have, to speak plainly.

The Russian state sent a low-level group centred on a middling RF Gosduma figure (they didn’t even send Medvedev, who met Benedict previously), whilst the MP only sent the Blunder. He has no oomph… everyone knows that… the Curia knows that (they also know that he’s the most hated bishop in all of Russia… he has no chance at the funny white hat as he comes from a family of Jewish background… that’s the way it is in Russia. The Blunder is as marginal as Men, Chistyakov, and Kochetkov were). If the delegation were to have a legit figure such as Varsonofy Sudakov, Yuvenaly Poyarkov, Mark Golovkov, Filaret Vakhromeyev, or even Kliment Kapalin as the head, then, both the Curia and we would sit up and take notice of it (and have meaty material for speculation). As it is, it’s just the Blunder and his usual set of greasy eunuchs from Bolshaya Ordynka.

As an aside, the OCA kisses up big-time to the papists because they get recognition as a legit Local Church from them (which they don’t get in Real Orthodox circles). The Curia knows this… shall they place Mollard near Bart, just to show the latter who’s the boss and who’s the flunky? It’s a possibility…

BMD 

Report Claims KPRF Won 2011 Election

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On Wednesday, the announcement of a report casting fresh doubt on the results of the 2011 Russian parliamentary election drew a dismissive response from the pro-Kremlin ruling party and the country’s top election official, whilst also causing a flurry of speculation about motives, as the study reportedly emerged from a think-tank headed by an official close to President Vladimir Putin. Stepan Sulakshin, the author of the Moscow-based Governance and Problem Analysis Centre’s report, told the newspaper RBK Daily in comments published late on Tuesday, “The officially-announced results are inaccurate. United Russia didn’t take first place; the KPRF took first place”. Sulakshin said the United Russia party gained 20-25 percent of the vote at the 2011 election for the RF Gosduma, compared to the official figure of 49 percent, whilst the KPRF gained 25-30 percent, significantly more than the 19 percent announced by election officials.

On Wednesday, we couldn’t reach Sulakshin for comment. A spokesman at the think-tank, where is he’s director, said that he was “on a business trip”, and no one else at the centre could comment on the report, which wasn’t released to the public. The newspaper Kommersant said that the report came out of a seminar that took place in the fall of 2012, and that “mathematical” methods grounded its findings. Widespread allegations of vote fraud in favour of then-Prime Minister Putin’s United Russia party at the 4 December 2011 parliamentary election triggered the largest anti-government demonstrations since the fall of the USSR.

Unlikely Critic

The think-tank responsible for the potentially-explosive report is run by an unlikely government critic, Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin, an alleged former KGB officer widely-seen as a member of Putin’s inner circle. However, a source within Russian Railways told RIA-Novosti on Wednesday that Yakunin wasn’t involved in the drawing-up of the report. The source was unable to say why the news of the report was only made public more than a year after the elections, but denied that it was part of a rumoured Kremlin plan to call snap parliamentary polls.

Earlier this year, the respected Russian newspaper Kommersant said, citing United Russia sources, that the Kremlin could disband parliament… hit by a number of alleged corruption scandals involving lawmakers in recent months… in a bid to save Putin’s declining ratings. Putin stepped down as head of United Russia last May, when he handed over stewardship of the party to Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev. However, commentators suggest he remains closely linked in the eyes of the public to the party, which opposition figurehead Aleksei Navalny successfully branded “the party of crooks and thieves”. An opinion survey released earlier this week by the IA Rex pollster found that that in a survey of 396 political analysts, 22.5 percent believed in the likelihood of early elections to the RF Gosduma, whilst a similar proportion didn’t rule out the scenario.

On Wednesday, other political analysts suggested that the report was a bid to differentiate Putin from United Russia in the eyes of the electorate. Respected political analyst Yevgeni Minchenko told Kommersant, “There are a group of zealous guys in that centre who believe it’s necessary to distance Putin from United Russia… to deflect everything negative onto the party”. Lilia Shibanova, head of the independent election watchdog Golos {Golos is a suspect pro-American group that’s taken USAID money: editor}, speculated the report could be part of what she dubbed “Kremlin games” that could see the creation of a new pro-Kremlin party to replace the increasingly-discredited United Russia.

Political Reaction

Konstantin Mazurevsky, a senior United Russia official, told RIA-Novosti, “The data in the report was plucked from thin air. They don’t match the analytical data. Enough other elections were held since then, including regional ones, whose results answered any questions and disprove the report”. The head of the Central Elections Commission, Vladimir Churov… dubbed “the wizard” by opposition figures after the 2011 polls over allegations he had conjured up an unlikely victory for United Russia… also hit out at the report, suggesting that its author seek psychiatric assistance. Churov, an unabashed Kremlin loyalist, frequently said, “Churov’s first law is… Putin’s always right”.

Surprisingly, KPRF reaction was muted. There was no reaction from veteran party head, Gennady Zyuganov. Calls to the party’s press office went unanswered as of late Wednesday afternoon. Vadim Solovyov, the KPRF’s top lawyer, told journalists that the party estimated it took around 30 percent of the vote at the 2011 polls. He said the party didn’t contest the results in court because it didn’t believe its appeal would get a fair hearing. The Kremlin didn’t officially comment on the news of the report, but an administration source told RIA-Novosti that anyone dissatisfied with the election results should file complaints with the courts, and “not write reports”. Shibanova, the head of Golos, noted, “Frequently, the courts simply rejected complaints about the December 2011 election”.

Putin’s Victory “Legitimate”

The report apparently also examined Putin’s victory in the presidential election last March, which saw him return to the Kremlin for a controversial third term after a four-year hiatus as prime minister. Sulakshin told RBK, “Putin, unlike United Russia, is legitimate. Fifty-two percent voted for him… zealous officials handed him another 13 percent”. Putin took 63.6 percent of the vote at last year’s polls, but Sulakshin didn’t explain the mathematical discrepancy, adding, “Putin needed an honest victory, so, he gave the order to carry out honest elections”. Anything over 50 percent of the vote at the March 2012 elections would’ve been enough to hand Putin victory in the first round.

14 March 2013

Marc Bennetts

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/politics/20130314/180000297/Report-Claims-Russias-Communist-Party-Won-2011-Polls——–.html

Putin Hails Chávez as ”Strong” Leader

Hugo Chávez

Vasili Nesterenko

2008

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World leaders reacted to the death of Venezuelan leader Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, the populist figurehead of Latin American socialism whose larger-than-life personality split both international and domestic opinion, with President Vladimir Putin amongst those praising his legacy. Putin said in a Kremlin message of condolence after Chávez’s death on Tuesday following a prolonged battle with cancer, “He was an unorthodox and strong person, who looked to the future and always set himself the highest standards”. Putin added that he was confident that the Venezuelan people would be able to overcome what he called the “test” presented by Chávez’s death and continue to build a “strong, independent, and prosperous” nation. Ties between Russia and Venezuela flourished under Chávez, whose 14-year-rule brought Moscow a number of lucrative arms deals and a close ally in South America. Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev said that Chávez had devoted his life to the battle for “justice and equality”, saying in a message of condolence to the Venezuelan people, “We share the pain of your loss… we’ll always remember this wonderful person, patriot, and citizen”.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Venezuela had lost a “brave, wise, and revolutionary leader”. US President Barack Obama… whose country was frequently the subject of Chávez’s ire… was much more lukewarm, saying, “At this challenging time of President Hugo Chávez’s passing, the USA reaffirms its support for the Venezuelan people and its interest in developing a constructive relationship with the Venezuelan government. As Venezuela begins a new chapter in its history, the USA remains committed to policies that promote democratic principles, the rule of law, and respect for human rights”. Former US President Jimmy Carter said in a statement that Chávez would go down in history “for his bold assertion of autonomy and independence for Latin American governments”.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said simply that he was “conveying condolences to Chávez’s family and the people of Venezuela”. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said, “I was saddened to learn of the death of President Hugo Chávez today. As President of Venezuela for 14 years, he left a lasting impression on the country and more widely”. In Cuba, the government said in a statement that Chávez had “stood by Fidel [Castro] like a true son”. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said, “This death should fill all Latin and Central Americans with sadness. Hugo Chávez was, without doubt, a leader committed to his country and to the development of the people of Latin America. Chávez was a great leader, an irreparable loss, and, above all, a friend of Brazil”.

6 March 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130306/179847691/Putin-Hails-Chavez-as-Strong-Leader.html

Some 400 Injured in Russian Meteor Shower

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The MVD reported that more than 150 people sought medical help in one of three Russian oblasts hit by a meteorite shower on Friday. It said that dozens of people suffered cuts from broken glass as the meteorites smashed windows in numerous buildings across the Chelyabinsk Oblast, but “no-one suffered serious injuries”. On Friday, Russian government officials confirmed that the meteorite shower hit three oblasts of Russia and Kazakhstan. The police are searching for the fallen meteorite pieces and protecting affected buildings from looting. Reports are inconclusive about whether one large meteorite or several smaller ones caused the incident. Residents of three villages in Sverdlovsk Oblast reported witnessing the shower, but nobody there was injured.

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The hail of meteor pieces that hit Russia on Friday fell in an area with a cluster of major nuclear facilities, including the largest Russian nuclear fuel-processing plant, but officials said early on that none suffered any damage and that they detected no radioactive contamination. In a statement released within hours of the strike, which damaged factories, schools, and residential buildings, Rosatom, the state nuclear agency, said, “All of Rosatom’s facilities in the Urals region are working normally. They’ve suffered no consequences from the meteorite shower”. The most well-known facility in the area, located in hard-hit Chelyabinsk Oblast, is the Mayak nuclear-fuel processing plant, where a major accident in 1957 caused some of the worst nuclear contamination in the USSR’s history, second, perhaps, only to the infamous Chernobyl reactor accident. Local officials said that they had noticed no contamination there.

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The MVD reported that the number of people who sought medical help across three Russian oblasts hit by a meteorite shower on Friday climbed to over 400. Officials said that hundreds suffered cuts from broken glass as the meteorites smashed windows in numerous buildings across Chelyabinsk Oblast. An MVD spokesman said, “The condition of at least three [people] is considered serious”. The shower hit at least six cities in three centrally-located Russian oblasts. On Friday, Russian government officials confirmed that the shower also affected some areas of neighbouring Kazakhstan.

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On Friday morning, Russian officials said that falling meteorite particles and the shock waves and sonic booms caused by them damaged buildings across Chelyabinsk Oblast. The MVD reported that a roof and wall partly collapsed at a zinc factory in Chelyabinsk Oblast after a shock wave from a meteorite struck it. The officials didn’t specify which factory it was. In an online statement, the oblast authorities said that the factory continued working normally despite the damage. South Ural State University cancelled classes for at least two days due to damage to its buildings. A university spokesman told RIA-Novosti, “The roof didn’t collapse, but the damage is quite significant. The windows are broken; some of them were blown in with their frames”. She also added that some ceiling tiles also fell down. EMERCOM reported that windows were also broken at least a dozen schools and three hospitals. The roof of a Chelyabinsk ice rink also suffered damage.

Chelyabinsk municipal authorities reported that at least 454 residential buildings had their gas supply cut off in central Chelyabinsk as of 16.30 local time Friday afternoon after protective safety systems were activated, but they reported no damage to gas pipelines. Energy supplier Inter RAO reported that the Yuzhnouralskaya district power station had 10 percent of its windows broken, but there was no effect on its operations. Rosatom, the state nuclear agency, said that its facilities across the affected regions were functioning normally. The Defence Ministry also said that none of its property was damaged. In Chelyabinsk Oblast alone, hundreds of people were injured, mainly due to cuts from flying glass. People in at least three Russian oblasts (Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, and Tyumen), as well as those in the northern area of neighbouring Kazakhstan, witnessed the meteorite shower early on Friday morning.

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Chelyabinsk Oblast Governor Mikhail Yurevich said in a statement posted on his website that a meteorite that injured scores of people in central Russia when it fell to earth early on Friday plunged into a lake in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, noting, “The meteorite that passed over Chelyabinsk Oblast fell into a body of water 1 kilometre (2/3 mile) from the city of Chebarkul”. Almost 500 people were injured when fragments from what EMERCOM said was a single meteorite fell across central Russia. Most people were hurt by shattering glass. Five people are in hospital, an MVD spokesman described the condition of three of them as “serious”. Roscosmos confirmed that the object was a meteorite and said that it was moving at “around 30 kilometres per second (108,000 kph/18.6 miles per second/67,100 mph) at a low trajectory”.

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The European Space Agency (ESA) said that the meteorite that hit the Urals on Friday morning was not debris from the 2012 DA₁₄ asteroid, which is due to pass close by the Earth later the same day. ESA said on its official Twitter that its experts confirmed that there’s no link between the meteorite and the asteroid, but provided no details of its analysis. The 2012 DA₁₄, which is roughly 50 metres (165 feet) in diameter, will pass 27,000 kilometres (16,800 miles) from Earth… closer than satellites in geosynchronous orbit, which is 36,000 kilometres (22,400 miles). The 2012 DA₁₄ flyby will take place at 19.24 UTC (11.24 PST 14.24 EST 23.24 MSK 06.24 16 February AEST), about 16 hours after the meteorite incident in Chelyabinsk Oblast which left at least 400 injured, mostly from glass broken by the shock wave as the meteorite flew past. Numerous media reports linked the asteroid to the meteor. Tatiana Bordovitsina, an astronomy professor at Tomsk State University in western Siberia, told RIA-Novosti two hours before the ESA statement that the meteorite could’ve been debris preceding the asteroid, but she said that we needed a more thorough examination of the incident. NASA confirmed that 2012 DA₁₄ isn’t on a collision course with the planet, but said that if the asteroid hit the Earth, the resulting explosion would be 1,000 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb that obliterated Hiroshima in 1945.

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On Friday, health officials confirmed that a hail of meteorite fragments injured hundreds of people in central Russia. Various officials said that as of mid-day MSK, as many as 725 people, including up to 159 children, sought medical assistance in hard-hit Chelyabinsk Oblast because of the strikes. Figures on hospitalisation in the oblast varied significantly, from 34 to 112, with several reported to be in “serious” condition. Most people were hurt by shattering glass. President Vladimir Putin ordered EMERCOM officials to provide “immediate” assistance to the people affected by the meteorite. Gas supplies were cut off to hundreds of homes in Chelyabinsk as a safety precaution, and some 3,000 buildings were reported to have been damaged. The government mobilised an estimated 20,000 emergency response workers. Reportedly, background radiation levels remain unchanged. Both EMERCOM and Rosatom confirmed this, as the area has a fair number of nuclear facilities.

Reports about whether this was one large meteorite or many smaller ones initially varied, but Roscosmos confirmed by early afternoon that the object was a single meteorite, a report given earlier by EMERCOM. Yelena Smirnykh, deputy head of the EMERCOM press office, said, “Verified information indicates that this was one meteorite, which burned up as it approached Earth and disintegrated into smaller pieces”. Roscosmos stated that the meteorite fragments were moving at a speed of 30 kilometres per second.

A teacher in Chelyabinsk Oblast told RIA-Novosti, “All the city’s residents saw blinding flashes, very bright ones. Suddenly, it was very, very horribly bright. Not like the lights got turned on, but as if everything was illuminated with unusual white light”. Officials are trying to determine where the fragments landed. The governor of Chelyabinsk Oblast said that one had fallen in a lake in his oblast, whilst others were reported in Tyumen, Kurgan, and Sverdlovsk Oblasts as well. Police said an eight-metre-wide (26-feet-wide) crater was discovered near the Chelyabinsk lake. They reported that the radiation levels around the crater were normal.

Emergency officials in west Kazakhstan said that they were searching for two unidentified objects that fell in Aktobe Oblast. The European Space Agency (ESA) said that there was no link between the meteorite and the DA₁₄ asteroid, which is due to pass close by the Earth later on Friday. NASA also said that there was no connection because the asteroid and the “Russian meteorite” are on “very different paths”. Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, speaking at an economic forum in Krasnoyarsk Krai in Siberia, called the meteorite “a symbol of the forum”, saying, “I hope that there’ll be no serious consequences, but it’s a demonstration that it isn’t only the economy that’s vulnerable, but our planet as well”.

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On Friday, nationalist lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky, long known for his flamboyance and outrageous remarks, said that meteorite fragments hadn’t rained down on Russia in the morning, but that the light flashes and tremors in several oblasts resulted from American weapons tests. Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, told journalists several hours after EMERCOM began issuing statements on the incident, which injured hundreds and damaged scores of buildings, “Those aren’t meteors falling, it’s the Americans testing new weapons”. He also said that US Secretary of State John Kerry wanted to warn Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the “provocation” on Monday, but couldn’t reach him… a reference to US State Department comments earlier this week that Kerry had spent several days trying to speak to Lavrov by phone to discuss North Korea and Syria. Zhirinovsky went on to say, “Outer space has its own laws. Nothing will ever fall out there. If [something] falls, it’s people doing that. People who’re instigators of wars, provocateurs”.

NB:

Click here and here for a video; click here for a photo gallery

15 February 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/science/20130215/179481989/Meteors-Injure-Over-150-in-Chelyabinsk-Region.html

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130215/179483089/Russian-Nuclear-Sites-Unharmed-by-Meteors–Atomic-Agency.html

http://en.rian.ru/science/20130215/179483483/Some-400-Injured-in-Russian-Meteor-Shower.html

http://en.rian.ru/science/20130215/179484907/Russian-Meteor-Leaves-Trail-of-Damage-Across-Region.html

http://en.rian.ru/science/20130215/179484346/Russia-Meteorite-Fell-in-Lake–Regional-Governor.html

http://en.rian.ru/world/20130215/179485761/Russian-Meteorite-Not-Asteroid-Debris–Space-Agency.html

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130215/179481049/Meteorite-Shower-Hits-Russia-Kazakhstan.html

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130215/179489080/Russian-Politician-Denies-Meteorite-Claims-US-Weapons-Tests.html