19 May 2013. A Picture IS Worth a Thousand Words… Here’s What Radonitsa’s All About

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During the Easter season, real Orthodox go out to the cemeteries and visit the graves of their loved ones. We tend the graves and lay symbolic offerings of food and flowers on them (often, Easter eggs). However, on Easter and during Bright Week, we can’t offer Pannikhida, the first opportunity is the first Monday after Bright Week. Since many monasteries keep Monday as a day of abstinence, the custom has arisen of celebrating Radonitsa (Day of Rejoicing) on the Second Tuesday after Easter. Mind you, you can lay offerings on a grave on Easter and Bright Week (we certainly did), but you can’t offer Pannikhida. In the above image, people in Minsk are visiting family graves, offering a toast, and giving due respect. Radonitsa isn’t “canonical”… it’s a “people’s feast”… the Church didn’t decree it, the people just did it. Now, if some would just get their long noses out of books…

BMD

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Patriarch Neofit: Our Kids Need to Know the ABCs of Orthodoxy

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Patriarch Neofit Dimitrov stated that Bulgarian kids should have the opportunity to learn about their Orthodox Christian heritage. On Sunday, Neofit addressed clergy and believers on the 60th anniversary of the restoration of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. The message, read out by Bishop Naum Dimitrov of Stob, Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod, made a strong case for the introduction of religion as a subject in school, with a special emphasis on Orthodox Christianity. It also reflected on the last 60 years of history for Orthodoxy in Bulgaria. Neofit wrote, “The past decades weren’t easy, but with God’s help, immutably led by the spirit of truth, all of us, according to the measure of our powers, bore witness to the resurrection of Christ. Today, we call for, and will continue to call for, more mission and witness to eternal salvation in our dear homeland and beyond her confines. What’s been accomplished isn’t little, but it isn’t enough either”. Patriarch Neofit also reflected on the “spiritual crisis” that Bulgarian society is going through, which is deeper than any financial and political troubles, saying, “There is a crisis of values, a crisis in thinking through the eternal truths about God, the world, and humanity”.

19 May 2013

Novinite.com

Sofia News Agency

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=150534

Alleged Unmasked CIA Agent Leaves Moscow

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NTV television reported that Ryan Fogle, the man Russia’s security services claimed to have captured last week as he tried to recruit a Russian to spy for the USA, left Russia on Sunday, saying that Fogle checked in on a flight at Sheremetyevo airport. Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID) declared that Fogle, a Third Secretary at the US Embassy in Moscow, was persona non grata for “activity incompatible with his diplomatic status”, and instructed him to leave Russia by 20 May. Last Tuesday, the FSB claimed to have detained Fogle in the act of meeting a Russian special services operative, and offering him up to 1 million USD (31.5 million Roubles. 780,000 Euros. 660,000 UK Pounds) a year to spy for them. On Wednesday, the MID summoned US Ambassador Michael McFaul to formally protest Fogle’s activities. He declined to comment to the media on the incident. On Friday, a Russian intelligence agency publicly identified an individual that it claimed was the Moscow Station Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as of late 2011, a move widely seen as a breach of protocol in intelligence circles.

19 May 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130519/181239596/Alleged-Unmasked-CIA-Agent-Leaves-Moscow.html

Editor’s Note:

This smells more like intra-Russian infighting than it does Cold War tit-for-tat. The leftists have made common cause with the siloviki… and the pro-Western “liberals” {that is, libertarian Free Market buccaneers: editor} are Shit Out of Luck. Fogle was set up and he was stupid enough to fall for it. He was just the usual overeducated dweeb with an overinflated sense of self-worth. He was caught out… I still believe that he was a “roll yer own” operator, not a formally-trained Langley operative. What he did went against all the basic principles of spycraft… a real intel operator wouldn’t have carried what he had on his person or have done what he did.

VVP’s turning both “left” and “right”… he’s reaching for the legacy of both the Russian Empire and the USSR. This incident was “ready-made” for those who wish to discredit the Americans and those who wish to emulate them (mostly found in VERY small circles at the Centre and in Piter). In fact, it was rather too “convenient”… that is, this was more Sturm und Drang for a domestic audience than it was an actual nicking of a real spy. If Fogle were the real deal, they’d still be interrogating him, then, they’d have a show trial before shipping him off to Correctional Colony 1313 in the Sakha Republic to bust rocks under the Arctic Sun alongside Khodorkovsky.

However, here’s what perspirin’ minds wanna know… is there gonna be movement on l’Affaire Bout/Yaroshenko cuz Russia let Fogle fly free as a bird (sorry… I couldn’t resist the pun)? Hmm… could be…

BMD

Matviyenko Sez Cuba and Russia Ties on the Upswing

THIS is what HH thinks of El Comandante… any questions? He’s certainly not buying the lying rightwing twaddle that Potapov and Paffhausesn are peddling…

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During her official visit to Cuba, Valentina Matviyenko, chairman of the RF Federation Council, met with Cuban President Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz and Juan Esteban Lazo Hernández, the President of the Cuban National Assembly of the People’s Power, and said that relations between Russia and Cuba are having a renaissance. Matviyenko praised the expansion of bilateral partnership, trade, economic, scientific, and humanitarian cooperation between the countries. She told reporters on the flight back to Moscow, “Our delegation came to Havana to upgrade and boost parliamentary cooperation between our two countries. We discussed a number of issues during a two-hour talk, including Fidel Castro’s health. The Comandante is feeling OK; he’s following a strict régime under tight medical supervision”.

Matviyenko also said that apart from being an important strategic partner, Cuba’s also a good and reliable friend, noting, “Our countries have special bonds of fraternity and mutual respect; Russia has very warm and sincere feelings for Cubans. We love our Cuban friends and are ready for cooperation. Havana and Moscow became close allies under Fidel Castro… 2013 marks 50 years since his first visit to the USSR… Moscow and some other Russian cities noted the event. Now, bilateral cooperation is on the rise, mainly focused on trade and economy. Although last year’s trade turnover accounted for only some 220 million dollars (6.93 billion Roubles. 172 million Euros. 145 million UK Pounds), there’s a great potential for expansion”.

The streets of Havana have many signs of long-lasting friendship, such as Soviet-made cars. Despite Cuba’s turn to foreign investors, the USA doesn’t want to lift its sanctions, so, Havana eyes working with Russia. Lazo, the president of the Cuban National Assembly of the People’s Power, spoke about the prospects of bilateral energy cooperation, thinking that Russia could help in constructing new units and supplying equipment for Cuban power plants built with Soviet aid. Havana also expects Moscow’s help in exploring oil in its Gulf of Mexico wells and further construction of refineries. Russian investment in Cuba’s oil sector is important; at present, only Zarubezhneft does so, but other Russian companies shall also join in. Cuba also eyes cooperation with Russia in nickel production, tourism, and agriculture as well as seeking help to refurbish and upgrade the Mariel and Santa Cruz del Norte power plants.

Russia and Cuba are long-term partners. For instance, Cubana de Aviación uses Russian Tupolev Tu-204 planes. Cuba has imported some worth 12 million USD (378 million Roubles. 9.4 million Euros. 7.9 million UK Pounds) worth of power plant equipment from Russia in the last three years and has recently resumed purchase of Russian tractors. Russian tourists are also contributing to Cuba’s economic revival… some 90,000 holidaymakers from Russia visited the Island of Freedom last year.

19 May 2013

Aleksei Lyakhov

Lada Korotun

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_05_19/Russia-Cuba-ties-are-seeing-renaissance-official/