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February 25, 2016
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In a Kyiv monastery that has played a crucial role in both Ukrainian and Russian history, scores of monks accused of allegiance with Moscow are defying eviction.
The government has said they must leave the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra by Wednesday but the monks say the order has no basis and plan to stay "as long as physically possible".
"There is no legal foundation" for the expulsion, Archbishop Kliment, a spokesman for the church, told AFP in the monastery.
The monks are members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was under the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church.
After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the Church broke off links with Russian Patriarch Kirill -- a supporter of the war.
But Ukraine's government believes it is still de facto dependent on Moscow.
The cave monastery, which overlooks the Dnipro River, was founded in the 11th century and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
"Our Church was the first of Ukraine's religious organizations to condemn (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's war on Ukraine," Kliment said.
"It has given its blessing to the Ukrainian army to defend the motherland," he said.
But the government earlier this month said it was evicting the Church, citing "violations" of state property rules.
The spokesman said there was now a threat of "forced expulsion" and cut-offs of electricity, water and internet.
"We will stay in the Lavra as long as physically possible," he said.
'No link' with Moscow
In a video message on Wednesday, Metropolitan Pavlo, who is the director of the Lavra, called on the faithful to "defend this holy place with us".
Kliment said that more than 200 monks and 300 students live on the site, filled with golden domed churches with green roofs and covering an area of over 20 hectares (nearly 50 acres).
In front of one of the buildings on Friday, AFP journalists saw a removals truck in which young men were putting boxes full of books and small items of furniture.
At the main entrance, police were checking cars and asking drivers to open their boots.
At the end of last year, Ukrainian authorities raided several Church buildings including the Lavra and sanctioned clergy accused of taking pro-Moscow positions.
The Church's spokesman said he had "received information that police have the order to stop all cars carrying believers into the Lavra and check passengers before letting them in" on the eviction day.
Arina Lazurenko, 37, who came especially from the Sumy region in northeast Ukraine to visit the monastery, said she supported "all those who want to defend the Lavra and the rights of the faithful".
"I hope everything will go well," she said.
A tearful Anna, 46, said there was "no link between this Church and Moscow".
"It's a lie," she said, adding that she would "do her best" to come and pray on Wednesday to defend the Church.
© 2023 AFP
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Attempts by lawyers working at the behest of Donald Trump tried to keep former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen on the ex-president's side and were not only unsuccessful but helped to drive him into the arms of federal investigators according to a cache of emails analyzed by the Daily Beast.
According to a report from the Beast's Jose Pagliery, Donald Trump's choice to elevate former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani was a major factor in Cohen's decision to come clean about the alleged hush money payoff to adult film star Stormy Daniels which is now at the center of a possible Trump indictment coming from a Manhattan grand jury.
As the report notes, attorney Robert Costello, who testified against Cohen earlier this week, took the lead in encouraging Cohen to stick with Trump but his efforts to ensure the former Trump fixer that he would be protected flopped despite a fluury of encouraging messages.
As Pagliery wrote, "The emails show an attempt to establish a backchannel running from Cohen—who was suddenly being investigated by the feds over the $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels—all the way to then-President Trump. Costello had long been associated with Trump acolyte Rudy Giuliani, so an opportunity presented itself to establish a Cohen-Costello-Giuliani-Trump chain."
ALSO IN THE NEWS: It's 'game over' for Trump — if Jack Smith can find this 'last bit of evidence': legal expert
After meeting with Cohen, the report states "Costello kicked right into action, devising a plan to keep Cohen safe—one that relied on a presidential pardon from Trump, internal emails at the firm show," before adding, "That option seemed all the more promising on April 19, when Giuliani announced he was joining Trump’s legal team to try to shut down the special counsel probe that led prosecutors to Cohen. It was a position of direct influence with the president himself."
However, Cohen lost faith in the promises from Trump's legal team after a Giuliani appearance on Fox News with host Sean Hannity went sideways, with Giuliani blurting that the Daniels' payment was “Funneled through a law firm, and the president repaid it.”
That, in turn, set off alarms, with Costello writing to one of his law partners, "On Saturday, Michael was claiming that he… was convinced that Rudy is screwing things up… I asked him if he would be coming to our office this week and he said definitely, but I do not know if I believe him. I am beginning to wonder if he really has the money to pay us.”
The Beast report adds, "When journalists began speculating whether Trump’s one-time fixer was about to be arrested, the Cohen-Costello-Giuiani-Trump rope started to fray. On the morning of June 14, Costello texted Giuliani a warning: 'He is very agitated and lashing out. Basically he needs a little loving and respect booster. He is not thinking clearly because he feels abandoned. I am very uncertain about our relationship with him.'"
"When Cohen hired Lanny Davis—a Democratic operative who also served as Bill Clinton’s lawyer—it became clear to everyone involved in this backchannel ploy that the party was over. Costello texted Giuliani the news, expressing with certainty that Cohen couldn’t possibly afford such a high-powered lawyer on his own," the report states.
You can read more here.
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Three fragments of Athens' Parthenon temple, kept by the Vatican for centuries, were returned to Greece on Friday in what Pope Francis has called a gesture of friendship.
"The gifting of the fragments of the Parthenon, which have been held in the Vatican Museums for more than two centuries, shows itself as an ecclesial, cultural and social gesture of friendship and solidarity with the people of Greece," Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary for promoting Christian unity, told a ceremony at the Acropolis Museum in Athens.
The marble fragments from the Parthenon, one of the marvels of the ancient world, include the head of a horse, one of the four horses drawing Athena's mythical chariot, according to the Vatican Museums website.
It comes from the west front of the building, on which Athena and Poseidon -- the god of the sea -- were shown competing for dominion over the city.
The second is the head of a young boy, believed to be depicted carrying a tray of votive cakes, which were offered during a procession to commemorate the founding of Athens.
The last is a bearded male head from an area of the building featuring a battle between the Lapiths, a mythical group of people, and Centaurs -- creatures part horse, part man.
They had been held for centuries in the papal collection and Vatican Museums.
The Parthenon temple was built in the 5th century BCE on the Acropolis to honor Athena, the patron goddess of Athens.
It was partially destroyed during a Venetian bombardment in 1687, then looted.
Its fragments are scattered throughout many renowned museums.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Greece has been trying to recover them.
In the early 1800s, workmen stripped entire friezes from the monument on the orders of Scottish nobleman Thomas Bruce, known as Lord Elgin.
Elgin sold the marbles to the British government, which in 1817 passed them on to the British Museum where they remain one of its most prized exhibits.
London has long argued that the sculptures had been taken with permission from the Ottoman Turks who ruled Greece at the time, but Athens insists they were stolen.
Greeks had a "legitimate wish to have the Parthenon fragments at home in their place of origin," Farrell said Friday.
© 2023 AFP
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