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Editor’s Foreword:
Do mistrust the “English side” of Pravmir… often, the “translations” are bowdlerised and crank. The Platina crowd does some of it… nothing more need be said, no? Always stick to the “Russian side”, and run a “machine translation” if you must. Always avoid the rot that spews out of Platina, the HOOMies, and SVS if you can… after all, didn’t the ludicrous absorption with the “toll house” nonsense come out of Platina?
BMD
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Today, 12 February, a considerable number of believers gathered at the Cathedral of the Resurrection for the Liturgy of the feastday of the Three Holy Hierarchs. After the Liturgy, the clergy served the funeral for the innocent victims of Sunday’s shooting, then, believers carried out the Last Farewell. At the cemetery, the clergy served a litiya. The beggars of the porch of the cathedral and the street people came to bid farewell to Vladimir Zaporozhets, the homeless hero who saved four parishioners from death in the cathedral, as they were his friends in misfortune. After the funeral, a memorial meal took place in the refectory of the spiritual and educational centre of the Diocese of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and the Kurils.
Fr Viktor Gorbach, the head of the Diocesan Mission Department told Pravmir, “Today, his homeless friends travelled in a bus together with everyone else to the cemetery, and, then, had dinner in the spiritual and educational centre at the common table. In any other situation, one might say, ‘Who are you?’ All too often, we’d drive them away. This time, they were friends of the hero”. Fr Viktor recounted how 10 homeless people with bruised and puffy faces came to give a last farewell to their friend. He said, “It was interesting to see how someone tried to accost a homeless woman with a puffy face and a black eye at the cemetery. She said, ‘We came to say goodbye to Volodya; he was our friend’. They came to say goodbye to their friend. This feeling of belonging to something higher seemed to change their very bearing”. His son and relatives came to pay their last respects. Vladimir Zaporozhets wasn’t a simple sort; he was an ex-con. His family testified that it was very difficult to get along with him. However, he was the only one who wasn’t afraid to stand tall for the believers in the church. When the shooter opened fire, he sacrificed his life, covering the parishioners with his body.
Fr Viktor told us that everyone in the parish knew Vladimir well, he was in penury, and so, he often stood in the porch begging. He noted, “It’s amazing… he heard gunshots and went to defend the church. This act changes our whole attitude to homeless people. Indeed, many consider those beggars standing on the porch worthless people. Yet, one of them went to protect the church. In spite of everything, he did a podvig“. According to eyewitnesses, Vladimir was near the church. Nun Ilariona Funtova, the head of the Diocesan IT Department, said, “Hearing the shots, Vladimir ran inside the building. Surveillance camera video showed that he persistently tried to stop the gunman, telling him off, waving his hands”. She related how Vladimir got up after suffering wounds, trying to prevent the shooter from shooting again, but the perp shot him in the chest and head. Vladimir died on the spot from his wounds. Mother Ilariona said, “He took four shots, saving four lives”.
13 February 2014
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The Kuban Cossack Host decided to guard churches during services. LifeNews reported that Cossacks will beef up patrols in all parts of Krasnodar Krai, but not uniformly, as there’s a lack of personnel now, as a large number of Cossacks are in Sochi, to give security for the Olympics. Yevgeni Kurbatov, a senior aide to the Ataman of the Kuban Cossack Host, said, “After the tragedy that occurred in the church in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, we decided to strengthen protection of churches in the Kuban. We’ll do this so that people can come to services in safety, so that they can pray to the Lord, without worrying about their security”.
Cossacks patrols near churches won’t carry firearms. Nevertheless, such patrols could stop potential troublemakers. Cossack Sergeant Aleksandr Galkin said, “We patrol near the church from eight in the morning to eight at night. Usually, we can see potential troublemakers immediately. We go up to them and ask them to act like decent people”. Cossacks not only protect the church, but also give advice to believers on where to buy icons and candles, tell people the service schedule, and tell people when sacraments are available. Believers feel safer with such protection nearby. One believer said, “I feel safer when the Cossacks are nearby. The Cossacks don’t carry firearms; they won’t use excessive force”. In the Kuban, Cossack patrols started more than a year ago. Since then, they help the police in policing in the area.
13 February 2014
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The tragedy [in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk] brought forth great sorrow in my heart. For many years, I knew Mother Lyudmila Pryasahnikova, who was a very lively, loving, bright person and a faithful servant of Our Lord Jesus Christ. When she took monastic vows, she chose a name in honour of New Martyr of Russia St Lyudmila Petrova; she met her end in God’s church on the feastday of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. The Heavenly Church, the Church Triumphant, gained yet another Witness for Christ.
There was another victim in the church… the Servant of God Vladimir Zaporozhets. People told me that he often stood begging at the cathedral door. Perhaps, many passed him by, hurrying to services, not even paying attention to this beggar. However, on 9 February, the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Lord showed us all whose prayer He heard, and whom He justified. Vladimir sacrificed his life “for his friends” and received the crown of martyrdom. Apostle St Paul told us that God calls us not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for Him. St Filaret of Moscow wrote that suffering for Christ is a gift from God. They became victims in the cathedral*, yet, this act of evil testified to the glory of God.
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*This word in Russian can mean both “cathedral” and “assembly”… I believe that Vladyki Daniil is playing on words… they were martyrs in the “cathedral” (in the church building), and were part of the “assembly” of martyrs (in the choir of saints).
BMD
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I learned about the terrible tragedy before the Liturgy. I stood in the service, and my heart grieved until it was time for the Cherubic Hymn. I went up to the altar and cut a particle of the Lamb in honour of the repose of the newly departed Nun Lyudmila. That calmed my soul; it brought me a singular serenity, and the rest of the service went well. I urge all Orthodox Christians to pray for the repose of the innocent victims and for the health of those now in hospital. Let’s dwell in love and prayer for one another. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring us; we must always be ready to give an account to the Lord of our affairs, we must always have faith. If Christ doesn’t find love in our hearts, then, woe to us.
13 February 2014
Vladyki Daniil is the younger brother of Archbishop Tikhon Dorovskikh of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and the Kurils
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This tragic event affected not only our island, not only our Orthodox people, but the whole world. Today, I see here my brother in Christ, Fr Tomash, the pastor of the Catholic parish of Sakhalin. I’m very glad that Fr Tomash came to the cathedral for worship today to share our prayers. Remember the words of St Amvrosy of Optina, “Nothing accidental happens in life”. I’d like to draw your attention to some points… not in the life of the shooter, but to some amazing coincidences… firstly, there’s the fact that this tragedy happened on the feastday of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. Accordingly, heaven supplemented them with two new martyrs for Christ. Moreover, today, the day of their funeral and burial, is the feastday of the Three Holy Hierarchs… Ss Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom. Again, I’d stress that this is no coincidence. After all, these teachers confessed the full doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation; they showed us what it means to believe in Christ correctly.
If we’re wrong in our beliefs… then, we aren’t Christians, we aren’t followers of Christ, and when people begin to slip away from faith, terrible things happen. Let’s remember 1917… a year when God punished our Holy Russia for apostasy. The Lord sent it… our own Russian people desecrated churches and killed people. Who was “scientific director” of this rabble? Of course, it was Satan. What did we see in the cartoons of the 20s? What did they show? We saw a Red Army soldier with a rifle thrusting a bayonet into the stomach of a “bourgeois–parasite“, and where was he thrusting his bayonet? Into a priest! That is, of course, the target was the Church, to destroy the truth of God on earth, to destroy human truth.
Something similar happened in Nazi Germany. The German people, as well as the Russian people, aren’t to blame… ordinary people aren’t guilty of those who came to power professing Satanism… the Bolsheviks and the Nazis. All of them professed Satanism. This wrong spiritual dispensation led to terrible loss of life and human tragedies. Here we see the same thing… a young man was “carried away”. What carried him away? He became interested in the esoteric, in neopaganism. As a result, through this the wrong spiritual dispensation, Satan again unleashed his hatred of the Holy Orthodox Church. This reminds me of an episode that some told me about the release of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn‘s Gulag Archipelago. At that time in Western Europe, many people went for communist ideas, tons of ‘em joined the Communist Party. When this book shed light on the true nature of communism, the disillusioned packed the Communist Party offices… in all of their “cells” in France, dustbins were full of party cards… people saw the light. People realised the lie, they realised who we are.
God forbid that we, looking at such things, fail to extract the right lessons. It’s clear that from a human point of view, it’s a tragedy. However, were I to tell you that we need to put guards everywhere to protect our children, to guard every kindergarten, to guard every shop, of course, that’s wrong. We can’t do that. Our “security” should be in our worldview, in our goals, in a right understanding of what God is. We should be in communion with Him, that’s how we can achieve the “image of God” (богоподобия) here on earth, to become “divine by grace” (богами по благодати). At one time, a ruler asked St Basil the Great, “Why don’t you accept the teachings of Arius (Arians didn’t consider Jesus Christ to be God) and venerate him?” St Basil replied, “I was born to become divine by grace, so, why should I bow down to a creäture?” For such a response, answering everything, the ruler let him go.
These newly slain people died for Christ’s sake, so, let’s look at everything. Externally, it seemed that the Servant of God Vladimir was a young man who, somewhere, at some time, got “lost” in life, but his death showed his inward disposition. The cathedral camcorder video makes it clear that, at a moment when the killer forced a woman to her knees, intending to shoot her, the Servant of God Vladimir entered the cathedral and started to expostulate with the criminal. The video shows that Vladimir waved his arms as he tried to stop the criminal, allowing the woman to flee the cathedral. He saved her life by giving up his life! The shooter wounded him in the leg. Yet, he got up and went after the perp, who wounded him in the chest, and, then, shot him in the head.
Accepting the bullets, taking them on him, he performed the Gospel Call at the cost of his own life; Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (Gospel according to St John 15.13). he attained honour, as apostle St Paul wrote… For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake (Epistle of Apostle St Paul to the Philippians 1.29). Law enforcement officials tell us that circumstantial evidence shows that Mother Lyudmila, before the gunman shot her in the face, refused to cower and cover her face. You need to have this kind of courage together with faith to “earn” the honour of suffering for Christ.
It would seem that only a moment, a twinkling, separates us from eternity. However, from what eternity? Is it an eternity in communion with that “scientific director” who sent this “shooter” into Sakhalin, with the demons, in Hell, or, does that moment separate a person from joy in the heavenly abode? They made their choice. It’s amazing how the internal disposition of a person comes out at such moments. A young man was at the cathedral’s spiritual and educational centre; when he heard the shots, he rushed to pull out the wounded, mostly women. He said that he had no fear at that point; he only became scared after he’d pulled all of them out. That is, each person has fear, but it departs when you need to commit a courageous act. This, I believe, is why martyrs for Christ had the chance to suffer for Him… the Lord gave them this chance. However, they allowed the Lord to give them the chance. Why does the Lord choose a particular time to call people to Him? I’d say that it’s because either a person becomes a slave to evil and can’t get better, or, it’s when a person’s ready for the Kingdom of Heaven. We saw that here… the fruit was ripe; these people went to the Lord.
I’ve already said that, humanly speaking, we’re hurt, we’re sad, but from the standpoint of eternity, from the standpoint of God’s Truth, many of our parishioners confirm that they’re sorrowful, but they have heartfelt joy from the fact that we have new intercessors before God, and that we knew them. We know how we should live our earthly life… with compassion, with intensity, in a pure and pious communion with the Lord. May God grant that we’ve learned the right lessons from this tragedy. We shouldn’t cultivate hatred, nor should we curse the killer, for we learned a lesson about ourselves and about our society. We thought that we knew how to behave with others, that we were with Christ, that we were righteous, that we were trying to keep the commandments, that we were trying to see each person as an image and likeness of God, and that we were trying to love every person, no matter how unpleasant it seemed. Then, this love appeared… we must take it to ourselves, to place it in our hearts, only that will bring upon us God’s blessing and abundance. Then, and only then, will we have anything to give, and everyone around us will see that we’re really Christians. As the Holy Fathers said, “Hate sin, but love the sinner”.
13 February 2014
Archbishop Tikhon Dorovskikh of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and the Kurils
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Pravoslavie i Mir (Orthodoxy and the World)
http://www.pravmir.ru/provodit-v-poslednij-put-geroya-v-yuzhno-saxalinske-prishli-ego-druzya-bezdomnye/
http://www.pravmir.ru/posle-strelby-v-yuzhno-saxalinske-na-kubani-kazaki-udvoili-oxranu-xramov/
http://www.pravmir.ru/mitropolit-arxangelskij-daniil-vladimir-zaporozhec-pozhertvoval-zhiznyu-za-drugi-svoya-i-poluchil-muchenicheskij-venec/
http://www.pravmir.ru/arxiepiskop-yuzhno-saxalinskij-tixon-daj-bog-chtoby-my-izvlekli-iz-etoj-tragedii-pravilnye-uroki/
Editor’s Afterword:
There’s one overriding takeaway from this. Note this quote from Vladyki Tikhon:
Let’s remember 1917… a year when God punished our Holy Russia for apostasy. The Lord sent it… our own Russian people desecrated churches and killed people.
That is, the apostasy occurred BEFORE 1917 (Feliks Yusupov, anyone?). It puts the screaming of certain ROCOR sorts in a new light, doesn’t it? The rot was in the Russian aristocracy and upper bourgeoisie; they schemed against Tsar St Nikolai… the Reds were God’s Instrument to burn this cancer out. Look at the quote from Gennady Andreyevich in the image above compare it with Vladyki Tikhon’s conclusion to his funeral sermon. Note well their similarity. That’s to say, the Reds of today are upright moral people… the crapitalists are not (especially, those who salt millions away in the Cayman Islands and who dodged the draft in their youth). Cross and Red Banner… once at odds, once enemies… now reconciled, now as one. Now, that’s the ticket! Cross yourself before you kiss the Red Banner…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
Junta “Orders” Troop Withdrawal from the Crimea AFTER All Troops Gone… Notorious Terrorist Sashko Bily Dead… Right Sector Wants “Justice” for His “Murder”
Tags: Academi, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, Crimea, Krasnodar Krai, McMansion, Military of Ukraine, political commentary, politics, Republic of Crimea, Russia, Russian, Russian history, Ukraine, United States, USA
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Aleksandr Turchinov, the boss of the American-installed junta, signed a decree on the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Republic of Crimea (RK) and Sevastopol, which stated, “Enact the National Security and Defence Council decision of 23 March 2014 “On redeploying military units (divisions), institutions, and organisations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and other military formations” from the Crimea into other regions of Ukraine. Turchinov’s press flacks announced that the National Security Council and the junta’s Security Council Secretary would monitor the decree’s implementation.
Meanwhile, the RK formed a temporary working committee to discuss repatriating military personnel and prisoners from the Ukraine to the RK. On Monday, the Presidium of the State Soviet of the RK (GS RK) voted to establish such a special committee. Svetlana Savchenko, the head of the commission and a member of the GS RK Presidium, said, “We’re talking about soldiers from the Crimea who’re serving outside the peninsula. This process could also affect people from the Republic of the Crimea now held in prison in the Ukraine”. She noted that it’s a complicated problem, as “it’s unclear with whom to negotiate” in the Ukraine. In turn, GS RK Chairman Vladimir Konstantinov noted that Minoborony officials would be part of the negotiation effort, and that the goal of the RK Commission is to gather information about the whereabouts of RK citizens, saying, “There are people with whom to negotiate, and the Minoborony created a negotiation team. We discussed this with Sergei Shoigu, the Minoborony head”.
Editor:
The unreality deepens… the Ukrainian forces have all left the Crimea. Finally, the junta ORDERS their withdrawal. If that isn’t proof that the junta’s as cracked as it’s illegitimate, I’ll retire to Bedlam with Mr Scrooge…
BMD
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An SBU source said that Greystone Limited, a commercial “military company”, would take charge of suppressing protest movements in the Eastern Ukraine. According to a source cited by ITAR-TASS, the junta believes that the SBU isn’t able to suppress protests and neutralise leaders and activists of the pro-Russian movement in the East. In particular, the source said, junta boss Aleksandr Turchinov is of this opinion, “Therefore, they decided to hire foreign mercenaries, who’d serve as political police and state security protection”. Our source stated that the idea to hire mercenaries came from oligarchs Igor Kolomoisky and Sergei Taruta, the junta governors of Dnepropetrovsk and Donetsk Oblasts. Not so long ago, during a meeting with Turchinov, they discussed a plan to stop the protest movements in the East. Kolomoisky noted, “Why reinvent the wheel if there are real people who understand how and how much to pay?” According to open source information, Greystone Limited is a subsidiary of Backwater, later renamed Academi. According to military experts, the company has ties with the CIA and the US Defence Department. Its employees participated in the American Afghan War; after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the company appeared in Iraq, becoming involved in training the new Iraqi armed forces and police, as well as supporting occupation forces.
Editor:
Note well that the junta doesn’t trust its own policemen and special services! It finds that the only forces available to it are unreliable and untrained neofascists enrolled in the so-called “National Guard”. Therefore, it’s turning to American forces enrolled as private mercs to give Langley deniability (betcha that most of ‘em are Galician Uniates from the American/Canadian diasporas). This is proof, even for the slow learners, that Langley and Foggy Bottom are the puppeteers behind the junta. It also proves that Christiane Amanpour is a painted whore for Langley (she made an unwarranted snide swipe at the daughter of Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin)… she doesn’t criticise the junta for hiring American mercs to shoot down civilians… no, indeed! She shouts, “Hooray for the New World Order (but without all the “black helicopter” conspiracy theory froufrou, if you please)!”
Where’s the junta getting the money for these pricey goons? Why, they’re for free… courtesy of the American taxpayer. Aren’t you glad that the Republican Party stamps its boot into the faces of the unemployed so that we have the money to pay for murderous yobbos throughout the world (it gives a new meaning to “Pro-Life”, doesn’t it?)? After all, we gotta protect the “investments” of the Affluent Effluent above all else (they have McMansions to pay for and country club dues aren’t cheap), dontcha know…
BMD
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A knowledgeable source told ITAR-TASS that the RF government discussed a draft plan to link the power grids of Krasnodar Krai and the Crimea. The first stage of the programme envisages creating reserve capacities of 500-700 megawatts. Our source said, “Russia delivered diesel generators with 56 megawatts capacity to the Crimea and we’re assembling nine mobile gas-turbine power plants with 202 megawatts capacity. We must complete this work by mid-May. We plan to give reserve capacities of 500-700 megawatts”. They added that this capacity exceeds Crimean domestic consumption. The peak electricity consumption in the Crimea is about 1.2 gigawatts, the usual level being 800 megawatts. Of this, some 50 megawatts goes to uninterruptible power supply facilities, such as social infrastructure and the Black Sea Fleet. Crimea’s own capacity is some 550 megawatts, with electricity from renewable sources accounting for 240-270 megawatts. The second stage of the programme, planned for two years ahead, envisaged linking the power grids of Krasnodar Krai and the Crimea through an undersea power transmission line under the Kerch Strait. According to preliminary estimates, the cost of the network and of the transformers would be about 50 billion roubles.
Editor:
“We must complete this process by mid-May”. One wonders if Russia’s expecting a complete cutoff of electricity from the Ukraine in mid-May… one also wonders why they’re expecting that. Russians aren’t dreamy bandura-strumming romantics… they’re hard-headed realists (living with bad neighbours with the habit of invasion made them so). Interesting, no?
BMD
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On Tuesday, local media reported that Aleksandr Muzichko, a leader of the far-right movement Right Sector, died in a gun-battle in murky circumstances in Rovno in the Western Ukraine. However, a Russian security source told Interfax that he remains on the international most wanted list on charges of banditry and establishment of an organised criminal group, saying, “Muzichko remains on the international most wanted list because, so far, the Russian side hasn’t received any official notification from its Ukrainian colleagues about his murder”. Furthermore, even if he’s truly dead, Russian law requires that criminal charges filed against Muzichko must go to court unless his relatives ask the Russian authorities to close the case.
Editor:
Where’s the Munchkin coroner when we need him? No one’s gonna miss “Sashko Bily” (“White Al” in peasant dialect)… even the junta was afraid of him. He had so many people looking for his head that it’s impossible to guess at the real perps:
When that many people want you dead, you usually end up dead. One wonders if usually antagonistic people teamed up to kill him… politics DOES make for strange bed-partners at times, doesn’t it?
BMD
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Editor:
What follows below is the OFFICIAL account. Read it in that spirit.
BMD
On Tuesday, Aleksandr Muzichko (AKA Sashko Bily (“White Al” in peasant dialect)), a member of an organised criminal group earlier placed on a wanted list, suffered serious wounds during his arrest as opened fire on the cops. Ukrainian First Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Yevdokimov said at a briefing in Kiev “during his arrest, he was still alive, when the ambulance arrived, the crew pronounced him dead”. Late on 24 March, MVDU agents from the organised crime unit, including Sokol MVDU spetsnaz, carried out a special operation in Rovno Oblast to arrest the terrorist and his associates. Yevdokimov said that the arrest attempt took place at the Three Crucians café near Rovno, noting, “We arrested three people from the organised crime group and we seized an assault rifle and a pistol from them”. He went on to say that when the agents told them to “Freeze!”, Muzichko jumped from a window and then opened fire at a Sokol trooper, stating, “The bullet that Muzichko fired hit the Sokol trooper’s goggles, then, it stuck in his helmet; in response the injured trooper started shooting at him. Then, during the arrest itself, a fight occurred, with more shots fired”. The cops brought three detained bandits to Kiev and the authorities are questioning them {are they using the same torturers who aided the Americans during the Yushchenko junta? Perspirin’ minds wanna know: editor}. Yevdokimov said, “We believe that the actions of the group stipulate action under Article 257 of the UKU, ‘Banditry’”. He said that he asked local residents to aid “a more detailed investigation of the facts of this group’s activities”.
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On Tuesday, the Rump Rada appointed Colonel General Mikhail Koval as the junta’s “Defence Minister”. Of the 314 People’s Deputies present at the session, 251 supported the decision.
Editor:
Obviously, the junta’s former defence chief, Admiral Igor Tenyukh, stepped on a whole lotta toes. He had a habit of speaking the truth bluntly, with no treacly mealy-mouthed prevarications. He told the junta that the armed forces were useless… in no uncertain (and rather profane) terms. He headed the Minoborony Ukrainy for less than a month. The morale of the forces was in the shitter big time… now, it’s in the sewer… the junta flushed the professional officer corps “down the hole” (shades of Baby Plucky!). Do you need any more proof that the junta’s not only illegitimate, but incompetent as well?
BMD
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At a Tuesday briefing, Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Yevgeni Perebinis, said “The Ukraine neither was nor is planning to renew its nuclear status. Acting Foreign Minister Andrei Deshchitsa clearly expressed this position during his visit to the Hague”.
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The radical Right Sector demanded the immediate dismissal of Ukrainian Interior Minister Arseny Avakov and the arrest of members of the Sokol spetsnaz task force involved in killing nationalist leader Aleksandr Muzichko (AKA Sashko Bily (“White Al” in peasant dialect)) in Rovno Oblast early on Tuesday. At a news conference in Kiev on Tuesday, Right Sector leader Dmitri Yarosh said, “We can’t silently assent to the active counterrevolutionary activities of the MVDU. In this connection, we demand the dismissal of Interior Minister Arseny Avakov and we demand the arrest of the Sokol spetsnaz commander and all those guilty of [Muzichko’s] murder. Counterrevolutionary pressure on the Maidan and Right Sector as the vanguard of our revolution is noticeable of late. The murder of our brother-in-arms Aleksandr Muzichko… that’s exactly how we interpret what happened last night… confirms this. We understand that many want to unsettle and destabilise the situation in the Ukraine. Right Sector favoured and favours peace, tranquillity, and stability in our state, and we’ll do anything we can so that no incidents happen in the Ukraine”.
Editor:
This guy is SERIOUS. Smells like a new Committee of Public Safety, wot? I didn’t have any hopes at all for ordinary folks in the near term in the Ukraine. I think that opinion needs revision… downwards. God do have mercy on the suffering people of Little Russia.
BMD
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On Tuesday, Ukrainian First Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Yevdokimov said at a press conference in Kiev, “I want to tell the Right Sector, the White Sector, [and others]… the time for disarmament is over, it’s expired. We’ll view any armed group and those with unlawful orientation as acting unlawfully, and all our actions would be within this framework. They’d be tough and resolute. Lately, incidents have become increasingly frequent in which armed people use Right Sector’s slogans, who introduce themselves as its members. They involve themselves in hostile takeovers of firms and companies or in other unlawful actions”.
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As of 25 March, 443 out of 703 Ukrainian providers licensed by the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of the Ukraine stopped broadcasting four Russian TV channels… Channel One (worldwide transmission), RTR-Planeta, Russia-24, and NTV-World. The National Council’s website reported that the Council received 28 letters of enquiry. Most of them came from the Cabinet of Ministers’ hot line and over 200 phone calls. Viewers mostly asked them to explain the reasons for shutting off the Russian channels. The junta’s official excuse was, “The reason for the shutoff was that they circulated information threatening Ukrainian national security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, promoting war, violence, cruelty, spreading interethnic and racial hostility, encouraging religious strife, encroaching on human rights and freedoms. Most people understand this forced step. After these enquiries, most of those who called respect the explanations, but at the same time pointed up that they’d like to see TV serials and their favourite programmes, which are mostly interesting to older people”. Meanwhile, some viewers also reported that some providers didn’t comply with the National Council’s demand to stop broadcasting those TV channels and insisted on a respective response.
Konstantin Dolgov, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID) Commissioner for Human Rights, said that one could only interpret this decision as an attack on democratic freedoms and violating the Ukraine’s international commitments, noting, “This deprives millions of people of civil rights, Ukrainian citizens, who have a right to watch TV and enjoy access to the Russian-language media”. Dolgov emphasised that the junta in Kiev, which came into power because of an anti-Constitutional coup, proclaimed its adherence to fundamental civil rights and freedoms and to democratic principles, observing, “The Kiev decision runs counter to those declarations”. Pavel Gusev, Chairman of the Moscow Union of Journalists, said, “A country that proclaims democratic development trends and signs respective political treaties with the EU lays itself open to ridicule when it shuts off Russian TV channels. On the one hand, the Ukraine pursues European democracy and on the other, inconsistently shuts off Russian TV channels. This is at odds with democratic principles”.
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Editor:
Just when I thought that this asylum couldn’t get any worse… it did. Just the news of the last day is surreal beyond all imagining… it’s Hieronymus Bosch on crack! Cheech n’ Chong are tokin’ up the bong, and they’re up in smoke… and they’re peddlin’ good shit to the junta (that’s the only logical explanation for the barmy goings-on that just get STRANGER by the day). Won’t someone get out the humane killer and put the Ukraine out of its misery? Too many ordinary folks are suffering…
BMD
25 March 2014
Voice of Russia World Service
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_25/Ukraine-removes-its-remaining-troops-from-Crimea-and-Sevastopol-6450/
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_25/Ukrainian-leadership-to-hire-US-mercenaries-to-suppress-eastern-regions-source-3828/
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_25/Russia-may-link-power-grids-of-Krasnodar-territory-and-Crimea-within-two-years-2536/
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_25/Right-Sector-leader-killed-in-Ukraine-Russia-has-not-yet-been-oficially-notified-6506/
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_25/Sashko-Bily-was-fatally-injured-while-being-detained-by-law-enforcement-authorities-Ukrainian-Interior-Ministry-7378/
http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_03_25/Ukrainian-Rada-appoints-Mikhail-Koval-to-post-of-acting-Defense-Minister-9039/
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_25/Ukraine-has-no-plans-to-restore-its-status-as-nuclear-nation-Kiev-9413/
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_25/Ukrainian-radicals-demand-Interior-Ministers-dismissal-for-its-activist-murder-4458/
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_25/Interior-Ministry-warns-it-now-views-all-armed-groups-as-illegal-deputy-minister-8819/