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Editor’s Note:
Mikhail Timofeyevich was an Orthodox Christian. Light a candle in his memory at Liturgy, ask your priest to mention his name in the Proskomidi, and have Pannikhida said for him. That’s what real Christians do, and that’s what our duty is. That’s what God asks of us… not waving signs or condemning this one or that one. “Save your own soul and thousands will be saved about you“… that’s the ticket.
BMD
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The burial of Russia’s most famous small-arms designer, Mikhail Kalashnikov took place Friday at a new military cemetery outside Moscow. Mikhail Timofeyevich died Monday at the age of 94. President Vladimir Putin, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, and a host of other high-ranking officials came to pay their respects at the funeral, held with full state honours at the Federal Military Memorial Complex in Mytishchi Raion. Putin laid red roses on the coffin and offered condolences to Kalashnikov’s family members. The military paid a fitting last tribute to Kalashnikov with salvoes fired from the AK-47, the iconic assault rifle that he designed, and which brought him lasting fame. At the funeral, Yelena Kalashnikova, daughter of the famed weapons designer, said that her father dedicated his whole life to the service of the Motherland and “never thought of anything else”. Initial plans called for Kalashnikov’s burial to take place in his hometown of Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurt Republic. However, the Russian leadership decided that the burial of a man who made such a significant contribution to the country’s defence and who held the title of Hero of Russia, amongst other honours, should be in a more prominent place. Over 60,000 people paid their last respects to Kalashnikov in two days of mourning in Izhevsk before the taking of his coffin to Moscow by plane on Thursday.
The Kalashnikov Group, the newly-formed small-arms holding that still manufactures derivatives of the AK-47, said that it plans to turn Kalashnikov’s office into a small museum and to set up an award bearing his name to honour its best branches and employees. Already, Izhevsk has a dedicated Kalashnikov museum, opened in 2004, that includes a range where visitors can fire air gun copies of AK series weapons on a range. An estimated 100 million AK-47s were built worldwide since it went into mass production in February 1947. In at least 55 countries, armed forces, guerilla groups, terrorists, and even common thugs still favour the reliable and easy-to-use assault rifle. Thirty countries, including Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Finland, India, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, and South Africa, make derivatives of the AK-47, which has a vodka and even a rap song named after it.
27 December 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131227/185984477/Russia-Buries-Famed-AK-47-Inventor-Kalashnikov.html
Voices from Russia 
Hopes for the New Pope
Tags: Barack Obama, Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, Catholic Church, Christian, Christianity, Estonia, EU, European Union, Italy, Jorge Bergoglio, Poland, political commentary, politics, Pope, Pope Francis, Pope Francis I, Pope Francisco, Pope of Rome, President of Georgia, President of Russia, President of the United States, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Rome, Sistine Chapel, Sweden, United States, US President, USA, Vatican, Vatican City, Vladimir Putin
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As I stood on St Peter’s Square awaiting the famous smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney, I felt an immense sense of satisfaction. Daily, journalists, political analysts, and the public bemoan a lack of leadership in the world. On the other hand, here, here was a definitive opportunity to see a new leader in the making. After all, irrespective of who occupies the Holy See, the papacy has a potential for leadership that’s probably only rivalled by the potential of the office of the US President.
Already, Pope Francisco shows that he’s keen to give the Catholic Church a new sense of itself. His gestures (like shunning an armoured limousine with a bodyguard and going to pray at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore on short notice) demonstrate that “leading by example” isn’t just an empty concept for the new pontiff. I have a feeling that he’ll be a respected global figure, both as a spiritual leader and statesman. Actually, if one looks around the world, there are plenty of leaders. Although I didn’t approve of his policies, the late Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was one. Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma is yet another example of charisma, ideas, and perseverance fusing to create a real leader. Vladimir Putin and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, despite their bitter hatred of each other and no matter what one thinks of their policies, have already left their mark on history.
Curiously enough, the emergence of major political personalities in the EU is an increasingly-rare occasion. European leaders aren’t almost universally dull and uncharismatic, but they’re also mostly mediocre intellectually. A few bright exceptions, like the clever and ironic Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the President of Estonia, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Tomasz Sikorski, and Sweden’s long-serving Minister of Foreign Affairs (and former Premier) Nils Daniel Carl Bildt are the only exceptions I could find. They combine sharp intellect, willingness to challenge dated truisms, and a public presence. The EU is the only area of the world where these characteristics frequently disqualify a person from achieving major public office. What started as a European post-war yearning to avoid future conflict morphed into complacency and a fear of healthy debate. Don’t mention religion (except if it’s the infamous “religion of peace” of 9/11 fame), don’t mention national history, don’t mention values… unless it’s the prescribed medley of secularist dogmas on permanent offer from Brussels… and you can count on great advancement as a political leader in the EU’s councils of the holy … er, sorry, just councils.
Hence, the result… if you’re looking for fresh thinking in Europe, you’re left with either the Front National and its imitators, the “New Left”, or clowns like Beppe Grillo (but then, who said they’re actually thinking anything?) Actually, Grillo’s astonishingly-high standing is sharp and dark testimony to European disillusionment with traditional politics and their inability to cope with it. It’s no wonder the EU can’t find its way out of the current crisis… the politics of consensus evolved into a politics of paralysis. I don’t think highly of Barack Obama’s policies and I don’t find him a very effective leader, but those European politicians who pledge their love to him look small compared to the US President. In contrast, here comes Pope Francisco, who may well try to shake up Europe’s lethargic Catholics into remembering that they are Christians… and Catholics… after all. I wish him success, but I’m not very certain that he’ll succeed in the Old World. For leadership and vision these days, it’s more logical to look to Brazil, rather than to Brussels.
18 March 2013
Konstantin von Eggert
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/columnists/20130318/180088088/Due-West-Hopes-for-the-New-Pope.html