DIOCESES OF UPTs BLESS FORUM OF CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN GEOPOLITICS
Involves separatists from the Donbass, South Ossetia, and Transnistria
Religiia v Ukraine, 10 August 2018
On 3 August, on the banks of Lake Donuzlav in Crimea, the ceremonial opening of the 12th annual Patriotic Youth Forum Camp "Crimea. Donuzlav 2018" was held. The work of the forum camp involves the participation of "young activists and representatives of a number of regions and cities of the 'military glory' of Russia from the people's republics of the Donbass, South Ossetia, Transnistria, and Belarus with a total number of more than 150 persons," Religiia v Ukraine reports with reference to the website of the diocese of Crimea of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UPTsMP).
Archpriest Vasili Rudy, rector of the church of Saint Andrew the First-Called of the UPTsMP in the village of Novoozernoe, participated in the opening ceremony, on invitation of the camp administration. The priest performed a prayer service before the start of the whole affair and aspersed the attendees with holy water. In his welcoming speech Father Vasily wished God's help and fruitful success in the camp's work.
Also greeting the students and guests of the "Donuzlav 2018" camp were Russian State Duma deputy and hero of Russia Vladimir Shamanov (who is included in the list of sanctions of the European Union and Ukraine); the director of the Russian National Union, Sergei Baburin; the director of the news agency "NewsFront," Konstantin Knyrik; the first deputy chairman of the Committee on Education of the Russian State Duma, Oleg Smolin; the chairman of the Evpatoria city council, Olesya Kharitonenko; and other guests of the camp.
During a round table conducted after the ceremonial opening of the camp, honored guests continued communicating with students of the camp. Following tradition, at the order of the director, Oleg Sliusarenko, the students of the camp unfurled a banner of Victory measuring 200 square meters.
Within the context of the work of the camp forum, which positions itself as a "forum of contemporary Russian geopolitics" and proceeds under the slogan "For Russia! For Victory! For our Great Motherland!," a "course of lessons of history, spirituality, political science, sociology, and journalism" was conducted, along with "athletic, creative, and social events."
As one of the active participants of the event, political scientist Vladimir Rogov, explained, here the youth not only recreate but also have "communication with real heroes of Novorossia," for example with Abdulla, "a famous defender of the Donets People's Republic from Afghanistan." Here a lecture was delivered by Sergei Glaziev, an advisor to the president of Russia, who coordinated the conduct of mass disorders in Ukraine and also is included in the list of Ukrainian sanctions.
According to Vladimir Rogov, sessions are conducted not in the difficult "Martian language of the Church but in normal, daily language that the youth understand . . . because these guys must build the future people's republics." Rogov emphasized that this year, "for the first time since the revolution" participants came to the forum from Zaporozhe, Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, and other cities of Ukraine, and thus "we are beginning to lay the foundation for the restoration of the post-Ukrainian space, after its liberation." It is noteworthy that despite the participation in the forum of representatives of the aforementioned cities, the Ukrainian flag was not visible in photos and videos from the site of the event. Rogov himself sees Ukraine as part of "the Russian world" on a par with the Urals, Siberia, "Novorossia," and so forth.
The delegation from the Luhansk People's Republic included "an official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the LPR, Aleksei Selivanov, a former employee of two synodal departments of the UPTsMP.
News coverage for the forum was provided by the "NewsFront" agency, a project of the "South-Eastern Front" news center, which began its activity in March 2014 at the start of the annexation of Crimea, and provides "objective and correct reporting of events in Novorossia, Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, and the whole world," against "the cynical lies of the western news media," pursuing the "goal of defense of the interests of Russian civilization and showing the true face of opponents of the Russian world."
We recall that recently the diocese of Crimea of the UPTsMP welcomed a visit by the president of Russia, who was shown the work of "restoration" of the St. Vladimir cathedral in Sevastopol. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 August 2018)
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