This is Anna Akhmatova, one of several most interesting poets of the Russian “Silver Age.”

Is there power in Ukraine? Yes, some people are fighting for various chairs in our power structures – but those are local wars within our so-called “elite.” None of these wars, so far, has served any useful purpose for the society.

By Bishop Paul Peter Jesep Ukrainians do not need someone else’s permission to have their own Church.  I’ve said it.  I’ve written it.  And now I’m repeating it for the umpteenth time.  Metropolitan Yurij of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canada is aiding and abetting the Moscow Patriarchate.  His inhospitable attitude toward the visit of…

By Bishop Paul Peter Jesep Stalinistic, Orwellian, Dark Comedy of the Absurd all come to mind in reading about the latest efforts of Muscovy’s puppet governor of Ukraine, Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych.  He recently directed his unthinking, unchristian-behaving minions in parliament to formally accuse Yulia Tymoshenko of committing “high treason” due to her handling of natural…

By Bishop Paul Peter Jesep The European Union has a problem.  What is it to do with an obstinate man who behaves like a petty, arrogant, illiterate peasant who thinks he’s crafty like a fox, albeit a rabid one?  Ukraine’s president will fly to Brussels to meet with European leaders in an atmosphere that has…

By Bishop Paul Peter Jesep He’s back.  The impact of his return for Ukraine and democracy in general in former Soviet republics is comparable to gallbladder flair up, pain from kidney stones, the flu that lingers for weeks, or an ongoing bout of nasty dysentery.  Vladimir Putin will gallop into the Kremlin once again, no…

By Bishop Paul Peter Jesep Diaspora Ukrainians throughout the world are vocal and relentless in their justified criticism and at times condemnation of President Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych.  I’ve been one of them when he first sought the presidency and have never stopped.  In the interests of fairness and intellectual honesty, however, even the devil must…

By Bishop Paul Peter Jesep Pravda hasn’t changed since the days of the Soviet Union.  It purports to be, as its Russian name suggests, a news source of truth.  In reality, it’s still a mouth piece for government propaganda.  Mae West once quipped: “I use to be snow white, but I drifted.”  In Pravda’s case…

Ukrainians need to stop asking permission from the Ecumenical Patriarch and get on with building a national Church without him. Just as important they need to take every opportunity to contrast European Ukraine with Eurasian Russia.

Did the lumbering Russian bear eat sour borscht, get a tummy-ache, and get a bit grumpy?