Vladimir Rozanskij

The feast of Baptism is likely to be a test of strength, hopefully only symbolic, among the various Orthodox jurisdictions, with the Greek-Catholics at the window, also eager to present themselves as an authentic Church of the Ukrainian people. Clashes (verbal) over the relics of Saint Andrew Protoclyte.

Protests break out in Russian capital after most opposition candidates are excluded from the upcoming municipal elections. Almost 40 people are arrested amid police violence and threats. The head of the Moscow Election Commission tells complainants to go to court.

Following two days of meetings with Pope Francis, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is closer to the three objectives she has set for herself: a papal visit to Ukraine, the granting of the patriarchal state to the Uniate Church, and the beatification of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, who led the Church in the first half of the 20th century.

The exarchy of European Russians was born because of emigration to the Old Continent after the 1917 revolution. Moscow claims the return of these Churches under its authority, even if the jurisdiction was entrusted to Constantinople.

This third visit by Putin to Pope Francis, after those of 2013 and 2015, was particularly cordial and "relaxed", without excessive pressure due to international contingencies, and without showing any particular striking gestures in the Russian-Vatican relations. It was more than anything else a "staged confirmation" of broad harmony.

The Russian president will meet the pontiff on 4 July. This is the fifth time that Putin has gone to the Vatican. The topic of the interview: the instability of international relations, the crisis in the Middle East, the fate of Syria, the problem of nuclear disarmament, the situation in Iran. The "tsar" defends the Catholic Church, "attacked by liberal ideologies". Vatican neutral towards the Ukrainian problem. At the same time, the hearing for Ukrainian Greek Catholics.

Interview with the Financial Times, on the eve of the G20 in Osaka. Sovereignties are born because globalization has consumed the middle class. In the West there is "a rift between the people and the ruling class". The most important thing is to be able to guarantee "stability, as long as possible". The models are China and the 20 year reign of the "tsar".

The elderly patriarch, who broke away from the Moscow Patriarchate decades ago, ordained two bishops against Epifaniy. The ordination was censored. Altar servants and hypodeacons refused to take part in the "schismatic" service. Epifaniy stripped Filaret of its ecclesiastic responsibilities, but did not excommunicate him.

The Russian deputy Sergej Gavrilov occupied the seat of the President of the Senate of Tbilisi. Russian airline flights and shipments from Georgia blocked. Commercial sanctions are also being studied. Gavrilov calls himself "a Stalinist who defends the principles of Orthodoxy throughout the world". Fighting NATO and "foreign instigators".

The Patriarchate demands the return of the Andronikov monastery from the state, where the Museum of Andrej Rublev, the most famous Russian and world iconographer, is based. The aim is to transform it into a cloistered monastery. But this would prevent the faithful from gaining access to some of the most beautiful works in the history of Russian Orthodoxy.

Afghan militants are fierce opponents of ISIS. In 2018, some jihadists were saved from their attack by US military. The Taliban also control areas at the border with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to watch over the pipeline between Turkmenistan and India. Uzbekistan plans a railway that passes from Kabul, to the Indian Ocean.

Archbishop Hyeronimus II of Greece and Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kiev gathered together in Constantinople to pray for the feast of St. Bartholomew. "Prudence" in the recognition of autocephaly. Patriarch Filaret accuses Epiphanius of "selling out authority to Constantinople".