Vladimir Rozanskij

The Pope and Russia, a failed dream

After the Beslan massacre, an expert analyzes where Russia and the West is going in the confrontation with Islamic terrorism

Proselytism is a trivial problem compared to necessity of evangelising the world. A Russian expert analyses the results obtained by the Orthodox-Catholic Group.

Russia's re-elected president is the most convinced advocate of "New Russia", as he strives to synthesize a new national identity for his country –one which is part communist and part czarist, half religious and half agnostic. It is an identity that is populist and at the same time liberal. His presidency marks the beginning of the Putin-generation.

Russian Orthodoxy seems to prefer conflict to unity with Rome. Cardinal Kasper's visit to Moscow marks the end of large-scale ecumenical projects. Below we report the analysis of an expert on contemporary Russia.

Christmas 2004: triumph of Aleksij and Orthodox policy

National elections held on Dec. 7 resulted in a decisive victory for president Putin's "United Russia" Party with 37.1% of votes. Runner-up went to the Communist Party with 12.7% and Vladimir Zhirinovskij's ultra-nationalist party which obtained 11.6% of ballots cast on Sunday. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said that the government manipulated funds and the media in order to dominate elections. Even the United States expressed concern for the way in which the elections took place. Here Vladimir Rozanskij offers his expert commentary on the matter.