Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a two-pronged attack against the U.S., Ukraine, and any European ally who chooses to become involved by mustering troops and munitions on the Ukrainian border, and issuing economic sanctions of their own that will be much stronger and more consequential to the U.S. than what President Obama has implemented so far.
The Obama administration has accused Russia of violating a 1987 nuclear missile treaty by testing a ground-launched cruise missile and says the U.S. is prepared for immediate high-level dialogue with Moscow over the matter, Fox News reported.
President Barack Obama imposed new sanctions against several Russian banks, energy and defense firms, in an effort to stop alleged Russian support of separatists in Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces launched new military operations against pro-Russian separatists, hours after the expiration of a unilateral cease-fire.
Over 65,000 Russian troops were placed on combat alert and ordered to take part in readiness drills by Russian President Vladmir Putin. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department levied sanctions against seven separatists with broader measures being readied against finance, defense, and technology industries, Bloomberg reported.
Ukraine announced it may declare a “temporary, unilateral, cease-fire” in the eastern part of Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported.
As tensions continue to intensify between Russia and the West over Ukraine, Russia christened a fourth-generation top-secret nuclear submarine named Severodvinsk, on Tuesday.
As the situation in Iraq begins to looks more and more like a complete state meltdown, Russia has stepped in with a familiar refrain: “We told you so.”
The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan on Thursday created an economic union that intends to boost cooperation between the ex-Soviet neighbors, a pact which was at the source of the crisis in Ukraine.
A congregation of evangelical Christians in Russia’s capital Moscow were without a church building Tuesday, September 11, after workers with bulldozers and other equipment destroyed their Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church complex, protected by local police, witnesses said.
As protesters demanding more freedom and fair elections prepared to demonstrate in freezing temperatures in Moscow Saturday, February 4, a major Russian mission group warned of more difficulties for evangelical Christians and other, religious, minorities in Russia and other former Soviet Union nations.
The opposition in Georgia has condemned a fake television report about the invasion of the former Soviet Republic by forces from neighboring Russia. Georgia President Mikheil Saakhasvili has defended the report, following widespread panic caused by the broadcast.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin asked state-run energy giant Gazprom to cease all deliveries of natural gas into Ukraine, destined for Europe, Russian state media reported Wednesday, January 7, despite reports that over a dozen people in Europe already froze to death as temperatures dropped.
Christian missionaries have expressed concerns about the situation of Protestant Christians in Russia after attacks on a Baptist and Pentecostal church outside Moscow, apparently by members of a group supporting President Vladimir Putin, BosNewsLife established Tuesday, January 8.
A Muslim cleric has accused three Christians including a pastor of the village, 55/2 L, some 2 Kms from the city, of blaspheming the Quran, the Muslims holy book.
Sary Mirzoyev, pastor of the Love Baptist Church in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, has told Keston News Service that he will fight attempts next week to liquidate his church as a legal entity. The hearing in the liquidation suit, brought by Rafik Aliev, chairman of the State Committee for Relations with Religious Organisations, begins on 23 January at the court of Baku’s Narimanov district. Aliev is alleging that Pastor Mirzoyev preached against Islam and that therefore the church has violated the country’s religion law and should be liquidated. “They have alleged that we are arousing religious hatred,” Pastor Mirzoyev told Keston from Baku on 18 January. “I said nothing against Islam or against Muslims.”
ICEJ NEWS – 09/05/2001 On his three-day visit to Moscow, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, receiving some encouraging support in the battle against Palestinian terrorism, but with no apparent breakthrough in Israel’s bid to halt Russian arms sales and nuclear transfers to Iran. Sharon’s agenda has included attempts to enlist Russian help in a worldwide campaign to exert pressure on PLO chief Yasser Arafat to stop the intifada violence, to convince Putin to reduce nuclear supplies and know-how to Iran, and to interest Russian businessmen in Israeli opportunities. … Read more
19 April 2000 (Newsroom) — Russia’s newly elected president is displaying mixed signals in his approach to church-state relations, according to the Keston Institute, a British-based monitor of religious liberty. Though Vladimir Putin has not publicly discussed his policy initiatives in the run-up to his May 7 inauguration, two steps he has taken during his term as acting president point in “entirely different directions,” Keston says.