Eurasian Union or USSR… it’s the same space, the same people, the same culture… and the same VISION. God bless it…
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“I hope that the Eurasian Union would go down in history as one of the most powerful international organisations…”
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the MP Department for Church and Society, speaking on the Orthodox TV channel Союз (Soyuz: Union) on the programme Комментарий недели (Kommmentary nedeli: Commentary on the Week), applauded the initiative of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to create a Eurasian Union. He said, “I hope that the Eurasian Union would go down in history as one of the most powerful international organisations, which would positively influence everything that happens in the world, especially on the events in the environment created by its people”. In his view, such a Union must “synthesise matters from the point of view of our own political culture; it mustn’t blindly take ideas from this source or that one, especially Western ones. It should base its affairs on our ancient political traditions, our principles of relations between governors and governed, our models of people’s participation, including all the different classes, in the adoption of legislation and the shape of state power”. In addition, in his opinion, the Eurasian Union should play an “active role in determining the fate of the world and some of its regions, whether it be in the Balkans, the Middle East, Latin America, and so on”.
Fr Vsevolod thought that, today, no nation can survive in isolation, without adequate influence on global processes, hence, for the sake of their futures, “one will see the establishment of supranational institutions in Africa, the Islamic world, and North and South America. We need to unite together to be stronger, to use the great potential that our ancestors gave us, in order to work together to defend their values, including the values of Orthodox civilisation, and most of the peoples who live in the so-called ‘former Soviet Union’ are Orthodox peoples”. Moreover, he continued, amongst the Islamic nations who live in certain parts of the former Soviet space, namely, the Caucasus and Central Asia, there are a large number of Orthodox Christians.
Fr Vsevolod said he hoped that within the framework of the Eurasian Union mutual support “won’t exist only formally, but in reality as well. There are situations where support’s needed, because when one or another people face economic difficulties, there’s a risk of external pressure or internal strife, provoked and fanned by outside forces. Russia shouldn’t be the gendarme of Europe, as it was called again after the formation of the CSTO, but Russia has a fraternal obligation to help people in those cases when they’re being abused by outside forces who’re trying to force them to change against their will”. He stated that Russia and the other countries that are part of this new common economic space could offer international organisations their views on overcoming the economic crisis, sweeping away injustice, righting the imbalance between rich and poor, and other global social problems, including the difference between the “developed” and the “underdeveloped” countries.
In early October, an article by Prime Minister Putin stated, “the construction of a Customs Union [of Russia, Byelorussia, and Kazakhstan] and a Common Economic Space (EEP) provides the basis for the formation of a future Eurasian Economic Union”. At the same time, he proposed the gradual expansion of the membership of the Customs Union and the EEP by admitting Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Putin expressed confidence, saying, “The integration of our natural resources, capital, and great human potential would allow a Eurasian union to be competitive in the industrial and technological race in the competition for investors, in the creation of new jobs, and in building advanced production facilities, on a par with other key players and regional structures such as the EU, USA, China, and APEC, in order to ensure the sustainability of global development”.
2 November 2011
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=42884
Editor’s Note:
There it is… the first steps toward the reintegration of the former Soviet space. We may not call it “Russia”… we may not call it the “USSR”… we may even call it “Eurasia” (shades of Orwell!) … but it’ll be a civilisational enterprise (to use Sergei Solovyov’s terminology) thoroughly and implacably opposed to the present godless American hegemonic project (don’t let the religious imagery of the Christian Right fool you… they’re “Christian atheists”, to use the fitting phrase of a Russian bishop). This is a appropriate time for it… during the week of the Day of National Unity and the Day of the Great Proletarian Revolution.
Any Eurasian Union would have a firm foundation in Orthodox Christianity and Islam, both of which are suspicious of Western Neoliberal Capitalism. Note well that the Church is HAPPY over this prospect. Let’s not be coy… Fr Vsevolod’s His Nibs’ closest confidant… if he speaks, Nibs speaks, and that’s that. By having Vsevolod Anatolyevich say it, it gives His Holiness “deniability”… always a good thing for a leader. This means that any Eurasian Union would be Orthodox and Islamic in religion, socialist in public affairs, and opposed to the spread of American/Western transnational economic slavery. Orwell wasn’t far off in calling the ideology of his novel’s Eurasia “Neo-Bolshevism”, for that’s exactly what VVP’s proposing. Note well that the Church gives a hearty “Amen”… and the imams concur.
That means that the attempts of the rightwing konvertsy here in the USA to hijack the Church and harness it to their “culture wars” and rightwing notions are against what the best authorities of our Church teach. That’s why we have an obligation to oppose them with all our powers. Remember what JP did… he snubbed a bishop of the UOC/MP visiting New York so that he could attend a neocon soirée in the District and kiss the bum of the First Profit of the Mormons. Ergo, your choice is… you can follow Fr Vsevolod… or you can follow Jonas Paffhausen. I choose to follow the Church’s path, for that’s Christ’s path… not the path of the Religious Right and Paffhausen. That’s how serious it is, kids. You listen to the unhinged babbling of Rush Limbaugh at the peril of your immortal soul… and that’s no over-exaggeration.
Life or death… People or filthy lucre… it’s up to YOU…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
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