"Un"-Orthodox Attack on Ukrainian Uniates By Russian Orthodox Patriarch

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I (ne Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev) made some bold, nationalistic statements which seem to affirm Russian President Vladimir Putin's stealth war in  Eastern Ukraine relying upon GRU kinetic operations in the Donbass region.

But before you take the Russian Orthodox's philippic as gospel, there are a few things to consider. The Uniates are Eastern rite Catholics (whose worship is quite similar to the Orthodox except they are loyal to the Pope) is only the majority in three Western Ukrainian Oblasts.  Of the 75% of Ukrainians who believe in God, just over 5% are "Greek Catholics".   

Patriarch Kirill referred to the Euromaidan (which he called the Kiev Maidan), in which he alleges that the some of the Uniate demonstrators denounced from the dais Orthodox and called for the eradication of Orthodoxy in Ukraine.  Really?  The Euromaidan hosted HOURLY ecumenical prayers for the several months that protesters made their stand at the Maidan in the freezing cold.  It seems rather implausible that an extreme minority faith working in an ecumenical environment for positive change would agitate for eradicating Orthodoxy from Ukraine.  This sounds more like Russian Intelligence Disinformation which preys upon long standing schisms of Christianity rather than the facts on the ground in the Donboss.

To rebut Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kiril's charges, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church released an official statement which reads in part:

 The Ukrainain Greek-Catholic Church has appealed throughout all the months of the  violent  uprisings for searching ways of peacefully regulating this.  Simultaneously, it does not contradict the right and obligation of Ukrainian citizens to protect their freedom and independence.  Together with representatives of other Churches and religious organizations, UGCC is making concrete efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to the victims-residents of the Eastern regions of Ukraine, regardless of their nationality or religious affiliation. We categorically condemn any violence towards the peaceful residents of Ukraine, especially its clergy, regardless of the fact to which confession, religious or ethnic group they may belong.  Once again, we remind all of the appeal of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations for an immediate end of the violence and the surrender of arms by all illegally armed contingents, whose evil deeds have taken the lives of hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers, law enforcement personnel, and civilians, including women and children.
 Attempts to claim that during the Anti-Terrorist  Operation (ATO) the Orthodox faithful of the Moscow Patriarchate are the only ones who suffer, is a dangerous intention to set off the whole  Ukrainian society against one confession.  Intolerable is the evil attempt to label the realization of the natural right of the Ukrainian people for freedom and independence of their country, into the inter-confessional area, which provokes new tensions and new sadness in Ukrainian society – this time in the activities of inter-confessional relations.  Today Ukraine needs from its church men not a provocation of violence, but a construction of peace.
Ukrainian armed forces  are not structured according to confessions.  Therefore, in the area of ATO activities, there are chaplains of various confessions.  

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire occurred in the 5th Century A.D., Eastern Christendom was ecclesiastically governed by autocelaphous bishops (where a head bishop does not report to higher ecclesial authority) in regions.  Unfortunately, autocelaphaly can caesaropapism (combining the power of  secular government with the religious power, or making it superior to the spiritual authority of the Church).

It is shameful that at a time when Christians in the Middle East (Copts, Orthodox and Catholic) are being martyred by organized Islamist jihadists, that Christian leaders are jockeying for supremacy in ways which parallel secular Russian Federation expansionism.

h/t:  Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church

World Class Gymnast Gives Up Gold to Aid Ukrainian Army

[L] Natalia Godunko performing Rhythmic Gymnastics  [R] Gold Medal being auctioned for Ukrainian Army

Natalia Godunka, a 29 year old world class Rhythmic Gymnast from Ukraine, decided to auction her team Gold Medal from the 2001 World Championships in Madrid to support the Ukrainian army in the War of the Donbass (Eastern Ukraine).

To get an idea of the caliber of athlete Godonko is, witness her frenetic but flawless ribbon performance at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.



Godunka boyfriend, musician Sasha Polozhynsky, announced the auction of the medal on Facebook.  Plozhynsky regrets that Godunka put the medal up for auction but since it has been bid upon, he hopes that it will raise more money and inspire others to also help fund the cause. 

In one day, the auction had garnered bids had garnered bids up to $843 US.   The auction runs until August 10th, 2014.

During the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia  a couple of Ukrainian athletes protested violence at the Euromaiden protests in Kiev by Russian backed paramilitaries  by not showing up to their events.

Godunko sacrificing her gold medal  to support her country's army to inspire shared sacrifice to forestall Finlandization of Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin's expansionistic incursions using  non-linear warfare.

Many celebrities will spout off about causes about which they know little or that lending their support comes at no cost.  It is admirable that Ukrainian athletes like Natalia Godunko as well as Olg and Bohdana Matsohski are willing to personally sacrifice for their country and their freedom. 

h/t: Ukrainian Pravda 

Illustrating Obama's Lack of Leadership

There is a maxim that a picture can tell a thousand words.  To illustrate President Barack Obama's lack of leadership, one need not waste so many words.

A day in the life-- July 17, 2014

Top Left- A Malaysian Passenger Airliner with 298 people (including 23 Americans and 80 children) was shot down at 31,000 feet over Ukrainian airspace near the Russian border with a sophisticated Surface to Air Missile.  Pro Russian "rebels" against Ukraine trumpeted a shootdown on Twitter and then retracted it once the civilian debris was spread over a path of 10 miles. These rebels also claimed to take the plane's black box.    Russia wildly claims that Ukraine was responsible, claiming that the shot was intended for Russian President Putin and declaring that Ukraine was responsible for their own territory.

Top Right-  After 10 days of intense indiscriminate bombardment from the Iranian backed Hamas terror forces from Gaza, and a Hamas invasion force into Israel right after a five hour seize fire,  the Israeli Defense Forces launch a sustained air, sea and land campaign in Gaza to take out tunnels used to terrorize 2/3rds of Israel's civilian population.

Bottom Left- A picture of the supposed US border where an alluvia of illegal aliens are overwhelming the US Border Patrol as Other Than Mexicans expect to gain "permisos" from the Obama Administration.  This stream of illegal immigrants are being kept in close quarters in makeshift refuge camps, often on underutilized military bases, without screening for communicable diseases like scabies, whooping cough, tuberculosis, Hand and Foot disease and swine flu.  These illegal aliens are being distributed around the country, being given EBT (food stamp) cards and told to report for a hearing months (or years) into the future.  The Obama Administration's solution was a $3.9 Billion spending bill, which only dedicates $100 million to the Border Patrol.

Bottom Right-  President Obama's schedule included meeting with an unemployed American at the Barbecue Pit in Delaware, a partisan rally for raising National Highway Funds in Wilmington, Delaware and then off to New York City for two political fundraisers which were closed to the press.  During the 30 minute Highway speech, Mr. Obama devoted 36 seconds to the world crises but noting that the downed jet  "may" have been a terrible tragedy and our first priority is to determine whether American citizens were onboard.  Nearly a day later, the Obama Administration's investigation can not confirm if Americans were onboard.  Perhaps it is data lost on an IRS/EPA/FEC hard drive crash.

Bolton: "That's like sending a cupcake to negotiate with a steak knife"

John Bolton is a trained foreign ambassador but he does not spew diplomatic niceties when analyzing the Obama foreign policy failures, as evidenced in Ukraine.

Obama's Friday Evening "Leadership"

Palin's Prescience on Obama's Ukrainian Ineffectiveness

Progressives may poke fun at the supposed stupidity of Sarah Palin.  But who foresaw the geopolitical consequences of weakness in reacting to the Russians?  Palin intuited the patterns of Comrad Wolf as manifest by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. 

How much respect have the Russians shown for President Obama's reset of relations and his red lines?  Maybe it's because Hillary Clinton's State Department presented a red button which read "pregruzka" which actually means "overload" instead of reset.  More likely, it is the truth in Mr. Obama's "hot mike" moment when  now Russian Federation Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev  promised to transmit to Comrad Putin that POTUS will have more flexibility after his election. 

Vladimir Putin on Realpolitik

Garry Kasparov Checks Western Fecklessness on Ukraine

Garry Kasparov has evolved from a youthful Soviet Chess Grandmaster and a prospective Russian Presidential candidate in 2008 to an outspoken critic of the Putin regime.  Kasparov has not held his rhetorical fire against the unrest in Ukraine.

Previously peaceful  Euromaidan protesters were attacked by forces supporting of Ukrainian President  Victor Yanukovych.  Kasparov foresees an eventual Aunshlauss of Ukraine with the Russian Federation.  Or at the very least the Crimea and other areas with large ethnic Russian populations in Ukraine being "protected" by Mother Russia.  Kasparov intimates that the attacks in Ukraine were coordinated with Putin to occur during the Sochi Winter Olympics to act as a distraction.  The Kremlin has amassed 50,000 man force to secure the Olympics and Kerch,  Crimea  is only 274 miles away, separated only by narrow strait (alas the 2.8 mile bridge which Yanukovych agreed to in 2010 has yet to be built).

With Kasparov's involvement with the Human Rights Foundation, he is attempting to sound the klaxon to preserve freedom in Ukraine.  Unfortunately, based upon his Twitter feed, Garry Kasparov does not seem optimistic about Western "leaders"  rising to the crisis to preserve freedom in Ukraine.

President Obama made public pronouncements about unrest in Ukraine, which tried to blame both sides but also warned the Ukrainian government not to "cross the line."  

Hugh Hewitt was incredulous that Mr. Obama opted to use the idiom "step over the line", especially after the Red Line he painted in Syria in 2012, and then denied that Mr. Obama ever set a red line  in 2013 as the US was preparing to get involved in the Syrian Civil War.   Kasparov picked up on President Obama's pusillanimous tact about acting on "red lines".

The credibility of the European Union and the Obama presidency are on the line in protecting the liberty of the Ukrainian people and freedom.  If this situation goes unchecked, it will be an invitation for forcing a de jure Russian empire.

h/t: Garry Kasparov
     Chip Bok
     Graeme MacKay

A Bit about Euromaidan -- You Say You Want a Revolution?

As the world watches the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russian Federation, there is unrest in Kjiv, Ukraine.  Nearly twenty years ago, Nike advertised the that Revolution would not be televised.  That proves untrue as Espreso TV was carrying it live as paramilitary attacked the peaceful protestors throughout the night of February 19th.   First news reports indicate that 22 fatalities with 1,000 people injured,  but  based on the constant pops in the night air and the burning pyres of the barricades  in the main square, this could be a low estimate. 

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The EuroMaidan protests began on November 21st, 2013 when protestors gathered at Independence Square in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine when President Yanukovych suddenly swayed away from an associate agreement with the European Union and chose to strengthen economic ties with Russia.  The protest snowballed on November 30th when a group of students were attacked by the police, and it became a national movement.  

 

Protestors have been gathering in Independence Square, in the bitter Ukranian cold day and night to protest.  But people do not get passionate about just trade agreements.  People are concerned about the rampant corruption in Ukraine. President Yanukovych’s aloofness and unresponsiveness to the will of the people engenders ire.  And of course, the heavy handed tactics, which killed five protestors in late January and the wider violence and bloodshed today. 

While Kjiv’s main square constantly has 20,000 protestors (and can swell up to 800,000), there are said to be mini Maidans throughout the country, but much more pronounced in Western Ukraine.    George Weigel characterized the Euromaidan protests as the rising up of a nation which is tired of being ruled by thieves and barbarians and stand against a thugocracy. 

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These Euromaidan protests have been going on for the last three months.  It is a region of the world that we are familiar with through the Cold War.  Now that we know the protesters goals and modus operandi, what is the Yanukovych Ukrainian government position, and how much which "friendly" neighbors help resolve the uprising?

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  Aside from geopolitical considerations, this is a people who wished to be freed from tyranny.  We ought not abandon such lovers of liberty as the Obama Administration did with the Green Revolution in Iran in 2009.   Then again, a God fearing people protesting against thievery and heavy handed tactics may not find much sympathy in today’s corridors of power of the District of Calamity. 

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