Russia emphasised its right to a “preventive” nuclear strike this week in what military analysts interpreted as a move to introduce more clarity into the national defence doctrine. These statements made on Saturday by General Yuri Baluyevsky, Chief of the General Staff, were followed by naval exercises in the North Atlantic that involved over 40 aircraft of the Air Force. Although unrelated, the developments point to a Russia that isn’t so much on the offensive as some think, rather, it’s eager to bring its defence doctrine in line with that of the Western world and make it more up-to-date so that it can deal with contemporary military demands. “We aren’t planning to attack anyone. But, our partners should clearly understand… that the armed forces will be used, if necessary, to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation and its allies, if need be on a preventative basis, with the use of nuclear weapons, if required”, RIA-Novosti quoted General Baluyevsky as saying Saturday at a scientific conference in Moscow. He did point up, however, “military force can and must be used to demonstrate the decisiveness of the top leadership of the country” only as “a last resort”, when all other methods have failed.
“This is a clarification of our nuclear doctrine”, Sergei Karaganov, a defence expert and the dean of the International Politics Department at the Higher School of Economics, told the Moscow News. “What General Baluyevsky means is that we’ll use the doctrine of enhanced deterrence, which originated in the United States” and was used by NATO for decades. While Mr Karaganov believes the statements might be interpreted more aggressively in the West, they’re mostly meant to have a psychological impact. “We’ve adopted a concept of pre-emption”, he said, noting that it was not previously part of Russian post-Soviet nuclear doctrine. General Gennady Yevstafyev, a former military intelligence officer, believes that though General Baluyevsky made some very important and necessary clarifications, there’s nothing “extraordinary” about the statements. They’re in line with the doctrine President Vladimir Putin began spelling out in 2000, which announced Russian readiness to use nuclear weapons for its own defence and the defence of its allies. Yevstafyev pointed out, however, that we should understand General Baluyevsky’s comments in a context that includes some of the other statements made at the conference. “Soon, we may not be able to maintain missile defence”, General Yevstafyev told the Moscow News, echoing Colonel General Aleksandr Zelin, who told a conference at the Academy of Military Sciences in Moscow that over the next 12 years foreign powers will “obtain fundamentally new means and systems” and integrate intelligence, communications, and navigation, leaving almost all Russian territory vulnerable. “Under these conditions, a potential enemy will gain the ability to carry out high-precision strikes, coordinated in terms of time and space, on practically any target on Russian territory”, RIA-Novosti quoted him as saying.
As for General Baluyevsky’s statements themselves, experts doubt they’ll have any serious impact on relations between Russia and NATO. “This isn’t news for NATO”, Mr Karaganov said. “As for our allies, we’ll see who’s ready to join our nuclear umbrella”. Asked what potential allies might benefit from this kind of protection, Mr Karaganov pointed to countries in Asia. The statements came against a backdrop of the biggest military exercises staged in the Atlantic since the end of the Cold War as warships and nuclear bombers successfully test-fired supersonic cruise missiles close to the Iberian Peninsula. The missile cruiser Moskva of the Russian Black Sea Fleet staged a successful live fire exercise, while 40 aircraft, including Tu-160 Blackjacks, are set to take part. Colonel General Yuri Soloviev, meanwhile, announced this week that the Moscow Region would have a second unit operating the S-400 Triumph zenith anti-missile system by the end of the year.
24 January 2008
Anna Arutunyan
Moscow Times
Voices from Russia 
Yushchenko decorates Uniate Cardinal Husar with high Ukrainian award
Tags: Christian, Christianity, Eastern Catholic Churches, Josyf Slipyj, Kiev, political commentary, politics, President of Ukraine, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Russia, Russian, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Uniates, United States, USA, Viktor Yushchenko
Cardinal Lyubomir Husar (1933- ), the head of the Galician Uniates, a false pretender to the role of archpastor of the Ukraine
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Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko decorated Cardinal Lyubomyr Husar, the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGKTs) (better known as Uniates) with the order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (3rd class). Yushchenko honoured him with this high state award “for his outstanding personal contribution in spiritual revival of the Ukrainian nation, longstanding church work, and to mark his 75th birthday”, the official website of the Ukrainian President reported. Yushchenko also prohibited establishing places of entertainment and gambling sites near religious buildings, especially near the UGKTs cathedral, and issued instructions to allot a plot of land for building an Armenian Apostolic cathedral.
Husar was born in 1933 in Lvov. His family fled to Austria in 1944, and five years later, emigrated to the USA. He studied theology at Catholic University in Washington DC and Fordham University in New York, being ordained a priest in 1958 in Stamford CT. He became a bishop in April 1977. He established a Studite monastery in Ternopol in 1994, the same year he became exarch of the newly found Exarchate of Kiev and Vyshgorod. He became head of the UGKTs in December 2000. He moved his residence from Lvov to Kiev on 21 August 2005 over the strong objections of the Orthodox Church. Husar is considered a successor of the Uniate “patriarch” Josyf Slipyj, who was a spiritual leader of the Galizien Waffen-SS division and the Nachtigal battalion in the Wehrmacht.
27 February 2008
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=4334
Metropolitan Vladimir Sabodan (1935- ), confessor-metropolitan of Kiev and all the Ukraine, the true archpastor of all Ukrainians (in Orthodox usage, a confessor is one who stands for the truth in times of great trial)
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Editor’s note:
This is an insult to all Orthodox Christians. It spits in the face of the many brave people in the Ukraine who opposed the Jesuit Unia. This tells us that the “Orange” fanatics are cooking up a new Unia embracing all the Ukraine and we must stop them by whatever means necessary. We must kick the Uniates back to their Galician backwater, the sooner, the better. Note from the picture how Husar apes the Romans in all things. If there’s a choice between this traitor and Metropolitan Vladimir Sabodan (the true spiritual leader of the Ukraine), there’s no contest… we should send this Western lickspittle back to the USA (he still holds an American passport, and pushes an anti-Orthodox pro-American policy).
BMD