Russia

The president's meeting with young Russian scientists, whom he compared to the ‘generation of our patriots who worked on the atomic bomb’. He also evoked the challenge of reaching the red planet and the need to ‘protect oneself not only from radiation’ in space.

Regardless of its leaders and its political and cultural expressions, Ukraine must be rebuilt not only in terms of its cities and houses, as imagined by the Great Real Estate Developer who has ascended to the throne of the American empire. It must be rebuilt as a border crossing between resentment and hope, between Russia and the rest of the world.

Patriarch Kirill is speeding up procedures to achieve the canonisation of the most victorious commander in Russian history by 9 May, the 80th anniversary of Victory. A man who anticipated contemporary directives of ‘hybrid warfare’ in all dimensions, in the field and in politics, in ideology and in religion.

The 75th anniversary of the large hydroelectric power station commissioned by Stalin, still the second largest in Russia, was celebrated. Since the 18th century, Orthodox missionaries had started schools here for the religious and cultural education of Siberian peoples. But it is also the seat of the Catholic diocese of St Joseph, which serves the heir communities of Poles deported here after the anti-imperial uprisings of the 19th century.

The educational conferences which have marked the end of the Christmas season in Moscow since the end of the Soviet Union are the primary ideological review of the new Orthodox Russia. Kirill underscores the mnogočadie, the ‘multi-family’ as an indispensable way of life: ‘We are the largest country in terms of geographical area, but we are too few for all this space’.

The first gathering of ‘ideological’ immigrants who came to the country thanks to the ‘spiritual and moral’ visas introduced by Putin for people from ‘unfriendly’ countries who support the ideals of the Russian world took place in Šuj. To obtain a three-year residence permit it is sufficient to show medical insurance and sign an ideological declaration.

Through a wide range of initiatives, the Amor association aims to make Azerbaijanis on the Russian side of the Caspian feel at home. Chaired by Aliev's eldest daughter, it aims to distinguish its community from the diasporas of other peoples, focusing on good relations between Baku and Moscow.

In a paradoxical effect, Moscow's propaganda slogans about the ‘de-Nazification of Ukraine’ are causing skinheads and other violent forms of youth and social rage that seemed to have been archived to rise again in Russia.

The fall of the regime in Damascus has also led to a backlash against the Orthodox patriarchate heir to one of the most important seats of ancient Christianity by a mysterious movement sympathetic to the new Islamist regime which - amid accusations of collaborationism and old scores - is calling for the resignation of Ioann X. In the background are relations with Moscow with which this Church remains linked, though without having broken with Constantinople.

The Russians have been the most decisive in responding to Trump's advances on Greenland, proving that the Arctic is a strategic interest. As of 2019, Moscow has expanded its coastal zones in the direction of the North Pole and is targeting the northern maritime corridor for trade with China. And it may seek a division of the pie with the tycoon's America.

Clashes with Russia over northern territories is a constant in the history of the past centuries. But today there is no rush of Heilongjiang province residents to seek a home in Siberia at all. Rather, Beijing's advance is happening through the yuan, which is replacing the ruble in trade transactions. Natural resources the real issue at stake

Just as ancient Roman Empire had its protective geniuses of war, so in today’s dominant new patriarchal martyrology, the patron saints of Orthodox Russia have become associated with professional groups to imbue "traditional spiritual values" to all aspects of military and social life.