Your Holiness: Grace and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ. Remembering with pleasure our meeting in Washington some years ago, I am prompted to write by what I once hoped was a common concern for the unity of Christ’s Church and a shared commitment to bridging the chasm that opened between America and Russia during the Cold War. Continue Reading »
When we first met in April 2011, what initially impressed me about Sviatoslav Shevchuk was his almost preternatural calm: which was striking, in that, less than a month before and still a few weeks shy of his 41st birthday, Shevchuk had been elected Major-Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych and head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church—the largest of the Eastern Catholic Churches, Byzantine in liturgy and governance while in full communion with the Bishop of Rome. Continue Reading »
Putin isn’t a throwback. He’s exploiting the tensions of twenty-first century geopolitics. Continue Reading »
Last Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”—the breakfast salon of the bien pensant—Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Rick Stengel took on Vladimir Putin. Stengel attempted to explain how Putin’s conduct in Ukraine damages Putin’s own interests. Putin, Stengel told his interlocutor Steven Rattner with an air of frustration, “is making fundamental errors” that would get him in trouble with the Russian people. “He’s moving further away from the West,” Stengel said, at a time when “people want to be closer to the West.” Rattner agreed that Putin is being “irrational.” Isn’t it obvious? Continue Reading »
Vladimir Putin, who after a sham “referendum” completed his aggressive seizure of Crimea, denies he has plans to invade Eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, he is increasing the number of troops on the Russian-Ukrainian border and sending provocateurs and criminals to incite ethnic tensions in . . . . Continue Reading »
Donald Rayfield reviews two recent essay collections on cultural relations between England and Russia in the TLS: Anthony Cross, A People Passing Rude: British Responses to Russian Culture and Russia in Britain, 1880-1940, edited by Rebecca Beasley and Philip Ross Bullock.The links . . . . Continue Reading »
George Friedman doesn’t think so. Putin’s posturing over Ukraine continues his strategy of expanding Russian power and, just as importantly, of projecting the image of Russian power: “The Russians cannot simply allow [Ukrainian independence] to stand. Not only does it . . . . Continue Reading »
Over the weekend, courtesy of my friends at Netflicks, the wife and I watched what may be the most under appreciated film in quite some time, The Last Station. Beautifully filmed while adhering closely to period costume, architecture, and environment (1910 Russia) the drama examines both . . . . Continue Reading »
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