My wife and my eldest grandchild turned sixteen on March 17. (No, his parents did not name him Patrick after the saint. ) I asked him whether he was following the war in Ukraine, and decided to follow up on that conversation with an e-mail. It’s below. I also sent to him with a link to Pres. Vladimir Putin’s soon-to-be famous address to the Russian people of February 21. The link to the speech is here:
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/67828
Certain Kool Aid drinkers of the disreputable American press consider Putin’s speech to be irrational and the autocrat to be unhinged. I challenge you to find evidence of mental illness in the speech in that link above.
Here’s what I wrote to my grandson in that e-mail message:
“When considering current events and historical events, it is always best to refer to original sources. I am enclosing Pres. Vladimir Putin’s speech to the people of Russia dated February 21. At the conclusion of the speech, of course, Putin declares that Russia will recognize the two states in the Donbass region of southeastern Ukraine. Importantly, however, the preceding body of the speech outlines Putin’s rationale for his subsequent actions, i.e. the historical attachment of Ukraine to Russia, the present corruption in Ukraine’s government, and the encroachment of NATO. “
Yours truly
Next is something that has been of great concern over the last four years to Orthodox Christians who have been paying attention to the state of the Church and the pseudo-Church in Ukraine. Below is a paragraph from that same speech by Pres. Putin. We can pray there will be a silver lining to the tragedy of war, i.e., that the contra-canonical violence against the OCU-MP will be eliminated by Russia’s military actions.
“Kiev continues to prepare the destruction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. This is not an emotional judgement; proof of this can be found in concrete decisions and documents. The Ukrainian authorities have cynically turned the tragedy of the schism into an instrument of state policy. The current authorities do not react to the Ukrainian people’s appeals to abolish the laws that are infringing on believers’ rights. Moreover, new draft laws directed against the clergy and millions of parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate have been registered in the Verkhovna Rada.”
Vladimir Putin, 2/21/22
Handwritings on the Wall 