Vladimir Rozanskij

Patriarch Kirill heads the Russian Literature and Language Society, set up with the Ministry of Culture and Education. The Russian language and Russian literature are means for population cohesion. Schools need to be normatively grounded. Focus must be given to language teaching for the ethnic groups of the Caucasus.

Moscow announces reprisals against the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the West. Ministry of Foreign Affairs: behind the European Union is NATO, which has the task of demonizing Russia. Fears of boycott of the football world championships. The situation seems to have escaped both Putin and the May.

Francis is travelling to the Baltics in late September; Kirill will be Belarus in mid-October. In power for almost 25 years, Belorussian President Lukashenko would be quite happy to see a meeting take place. The nunciature and the patriarchate are working at it. Belarus has an ecumenical vocation. A new concordat giving Catholics the same rights as the Orthodox is close at hands.

Although the tally is not yet final, Tsar Putin leads with 76.6 per cent of the vote. The "Crimea" effect and the division among liberals contributed to his success. Patriarch Kirill blessed Putin’s victory.

Given the certainty of its outcome, the only doubt about the 18 March elections concerns the turnout. Over two decades, the president has built a Russia where wealth is abundant, but is distributed among a few bureaucrats, strong men and oligarchs aligned to them, while most of the population has more or less the same standard of living as during the Soviet Union.

A Patriarchate priest disputes claims of the bird’s divine origin. The controversy can be contextualised in moves by some quarters to have the Internet shut down because of its interference, also in the political arena.

The cult of the Blessed had spread already under the Communist regime. Spiritual healing and counselling have been attributed to it. In 1941 she is said to have met the dictator and predicted his victory.

According to the head of Russian orthodoxy, the Protestant Churches are dominated by secular ideologies that include "changing relations between the sexes", "support for homosexual unions, and so on". On the internet, sports, "pseudo-ecological" topics, radical feminist ideologies, and LGBT rights are targeting Russian youth to drag them towards populist and anticlerical anarchism.

In a two-hour speech marking the end of his term of office, the Russian president said he foresaw a future of well-being, security, and peace. He highlighted Russia’s renewed dignity and pride. "We are not threatening anyone,” he said, whilst showing the country’s new weapons and defence systems.

The army is the most important element of continuity with the once was Soviet regime. Together with the KGB and the Orthodox Church, they are the "spearhead" of Russian patriotism. Orthodox priests are trained in Omsk to drive amphibious tanks and use military communications systems.

The conflict in Syria was likely to lead to a confrontation between Russians and Americans. With the Pope "we were able to agree on many important issues, above all by focusing on the dangerous situation that had arisen in Syria".

Two years ago, Pope Francis and the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill met in the Cuban capital. At this time the common commitment to the Christian communities in the Middle East was strengthened. In Havana, both leaders used the word "genocide" to define the persecution of Christians. The optimism of Metropolitan Hilarion.