Cathedral of the Assumption in Vitebsk, completed 1777, destroyed 1936, rebuilding completed 2011
******
______________________________
On 7 April, Metropolitan Filaret Vakhromeyev of Minsk and Slustsk, Exarch of all Belarus, on the feast of the Annunciation, blessed a monument to Patriarch Aleksei Ridiger on the square before the Cathedral of the Assumption in Vitebsk. Metropolitan Filaret spoke at the ceremony, saying, “Now, as we stand before the walls of this church, we should remember how, in September 1998, His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei laid a capsule in the cornerstone of this cathedral and blessed the first stone for its restoration. Indeed, the deep faith and unwavering love of this great cleric remains imprinted in our hearts; he embodied a whole era… a time that saw the renaissance of faith and of the Church of Christ in our Motherland”. The MP official website reported that Metropolitan Filaret said that the monument wasn’t only a token in memory of Patriarch Aleksei, it symbolised the “spiritual unity of the Slavic peoples“. Believers, clergy, and government officials, including Governor Aleksandr Kosinets of Vitebsk, attended the ceremony. The erection of the monument was under the sponsorship of the Diocese of Vitebsk and with the support of the Ss Constantine and Helen Foundation. Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias blessed the concept, design, and layout of the memorial.
8 April 2013
Interfax-Religion
Voices from Russia 
12 June 2012. We Gotta Protect the World From Those Nasty Ol’ Byelorussians! We Gotta Put SANCTIONS On ‘Em!
Tags: Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus, Byelorussia, City Hall, local politicians, political commentary, politicians, politics, propaganda, Russia, Russian, United States, USA, Vitebsk
______________________________
The above image is from a recent parade in Vitebsk in Byelorussia. It certainly looks rather normal and innocent to me. It doesn’t seem to pose a threat to anything… except for the local pols being on the far side of bad taste… but they share that trait with most of their Western counterparts, so, what’s the big deal? In fact, you could swap out the Byelorussian local pols and the Western local pols, and you’d see no difference at all. They’d be equally self-important, jealous of their small prerequisites, and small-minded… no one would notice the difference. As I told my daughter when she was small, “That’s City Hall… it’s where the crooks live”.
Lighten up and pass the jug. Byelorussia’s an achingly NORMAL place… don’t fall into the trap that the propaganda spinmeisters set… it’s SO obvious…
BMD