4 April 2015. Today is Lazarus Saturday… Tomorrow is Palm Sunday… Holy Week is On Its Way

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This is the beginning of the most intense week in Orthodox Christianity, both Eastern and Oriental, bar none. This is the week that the Christian Year revolves around. I’m not going to give you a long theological explanation of it all… I’m not qualified to do that; I’m not a theologian, I’m only an internet journalist. However, I do know that this week encapsulates WHY we’re Christians… WHY we’re Orthodox Christians. We walk the path to the Cross… to the Tomb… to the Victory that is Easter. As the Apostle said truly, If Christ be not risen from the dead, your faith is in vain. Indeed…

BMD

The images are of the Icon is the Most Holy Mother of God “the Sovereign”

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DNR Veterans Council Urged French and German Leaders to Pressure Kiev into Lifting the Economic Blockade Against Novorossiya

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The DNR Veterans Council* appealed  to German Bundeskanzerlin Merkel and French Président Hollande, asking them to pressure the junta into lifting its blockade of Novorossiya. It wrote, “With deepest respect, we Donbass veterans turn to you! We ask you, as guarantors of the Minsk Agreement, to influence the Ukrainian government regarding its performance of measures to implement these agreements”. The Veterans Council stated that the junta hasn’t even begun to carry out the parts of this agreement about disbursement of social benefits to affected groups in Novorossiya, pointing up, “More than half a million senior citizens, disabled, orphans, and single mothers are left without means of subsistence”. They asked Hollande and Merkel, as guarantors of the Minsk Agreement, to focus their attention on the junta blockade, “as many people are unable to leave the DNR for the Ukraine to visit relatives because of a refusal to issue permits, and those who can leave complain of extortion by Ukrainian military and the National Guard (sic)”. In addition, the Veterans Council noted continuing attacks by junta forces and the movement of military equipment and units along the line of contact. In summation, the letter stated, “We appeal to your authority and to your common sense; we ask you to stop the genocide of the DNR’s people by the Ukraine, to make them return to the path of peace negotiations”.

• In Russian contexts, “veteran” doesn’t mean “military veteran”, but rather “senior citizen”

4 April 2015

DAN Donetsk News Agency

http://dan-news.info/politics/veterany-dnr-prizvali-glav-francii-i-frg-povliyat-na-kiev-voprose-snyatiya-blokady-donbassa.html

4 April 2015. You Can Learn a Lot from a Singer…

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I think that you can guess that I’m a big-time Bob Marley fan from WAY BACK… however, Don’t Worry, Be Happy wasn’t Bob’s… that was Bobby McFerrin. Most people associate that with Bob, but it isn’t his. Bob was a serious Rastafari, and he accepted baptism in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church before his death… that makes him part of the Orthosphere. Remember, that’s a sociological, civilisational, and cultural category, not a statement about who’s in communion with whom… so, Orthodoxy (both Eastern and Oriental) is as one from that POV. God willing, we’ll be able to surmount the theological problems someday… we’re already one in a secular sense.

BMD

Official Communication of the DNR and LNR Heads of Government to the French and German Leaders

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OFFICIAL

M le Président Hollande and Frau Bundeskanzlerin Merkel,

You, as guarantors of the Minsk Agreements signed 12 February 2015, have responsibility for each point of the agreements, to promote and insist on the strict implementation of and full compliance with the paragraphs full response to the Minsk Agreement by all parties to the conflict, without exception. For our part, we support a commitment to and a readiness for a full and comprehensive political settlement of the conflict.

To date, repeatedly violating the agreement, the Ukraine sabotages it by not fulfilling its obligations. The Ukrainian leadership continues to violate paragraph 8 full response to the Minsk Agreement and the provisions of the Declaration of the Normandy Quartet Heads of State of 12 February 2015 on the renewal of social benefits to the population of the Donbass. A decision of the District Administrative Court of Kiev on 11 February 2015 declared illegal and cancelled the provisions of Decree 595 (11.07.2014) of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers on the suspension of social benefits to the population of the DNR and LNR. The Court of Appeal of Kiev confirmed and upheld this decision on 2 April 2015. Despite this, this invalid decree of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers is still in force, payments are still in abeyance, and spokesmen for the Ukrainian leadership misinform the world community with false statements about the technical impossibility of resuming social welfare payments.

However, today, the functioning of the settlement system in the DNR is fully restored, the local authorities made lump-sum payments [to beneficiaries]. There are no technical obstacles to the resumption of payments from the Ukrainian Pension Fund and other social funds to the population of the Donbass. However, the Ukrainian leadership ignores this opportunity and continues to blockade the Donbass banking system, blocking access to funds for more than a million pensioners [in the LNR and DNR], leaving them without means of subsistence. This is a direct violation of Article 6 and 116 of the Ukrainian Constitution, paragraphs 8 and 11 of the Minsk protocol dated 5 September 2014, and item 8 full response to the Minsk Agreement of 12 February 2015.

We call on you, the representatives of the guarantor countries, not just to influence and encourage the Ukrainian leadership to implement this set of measures and restore social benefits to Donbass residents, but also to firmly demand that the Ukrainian side should stop ignoring the Minsk Agreements and return to seek a peaceful outcome of the negotiating process.

I V Plotnitsky

Chariman of the LNR Government

A V Zakharchenko

Chairman of the DNR Government

4 April 2015

LITs Lugansk Information Centre

http://lug-info.com/news/one/obraschenie-glav-lnr-i-dnr-k-glavam-gosudarstv-frantsiya-i-germaniya-2430