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“This Church is God’s and answers to no one.” How a women’s monastery linked to the “Putin’s godson’s” family and visited by Patriarch Kirill lives in Ukraine? Material from hromadske

View of the helipad on the grounds of the Zymne Monastery. Photo: hromadske. The material was originally published by hromadske. With the permission of our colleagues, we are publishing its full translation with minor edits. The Zymne women's monastery in the Volyn region is one of the oldest in Ukraine and a national architectural monument. It is also a point of contention in discussions about the activities and influence of the UOC (MP) religious structures. From ruins in 1991 to a modern complex spanning over 16 hectares, including utility buildings, a hotel, and a helipad, the monastery has been restored over decades with the involvement of political elites. In the past, it was visited by ex-presidents Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yanukovych, and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill. Also present were leaders of the banned “Opposition Platform — For Life” (OPZZh) party, including Viktor Medvedchuk, who is known as Vladimir Putin’s godson. He is considered the politician most connected to the monastery, a connection confirmed, according to him, by the abbess. “As far as I remember, Abbess Stefana [the monastery’s abbess] was always called Medvedchuk’s godmother,” says Zoryana Bodyalova, a journalist from the Volyn region. Where are rumors and where is truth? What were the results of the SBU’s checks on the monastery? Are its cult buildings indeed owned by the UOC until 2069? Journalists from the Ukrainian publication hromadske found out how the monastery lives. “We revived this monastery. Why destroy it?” The first written mention of the Zymne Monastery dates back to the late 11th century. The first Volyn saints resided here. Nestor the Chronicler was also here. According to legend, a century earlier, Prince Volodymyr founded the monastery, building two churches and a winter princely residence on the high bank of the Luga River. Around it were fortress walls and defensive ramparts. Initially, the monastery was male. In the 18th century, it suffered destruction during the rule of the Uniates. A hundred years later, monastic life began to revive, but as a women’s monastery. In 1939, it was closed by the Soviet authorities. It wasn't until 1991 that the first inhabitants arrived in the village of Zymne (a suburb of Volodymyr), to the monastery, which was in ruins. Among them was Stefana, who has been the abbess of the Holy Dormition Zymne Women's Monastery for 34 years. “We came to ruins after the communists. [There was] not a stone on a stone, the walls were dismantled. But we did it, we revived this monastery for the Ukrainian people. Not Muscovites travel here... And the church simply flourished. Why destroy it today?” said Abbess Stefana in her last interview in 2023, responding to accusations of the convent's benefactors having ties to Russia. Ruins of the Zymne Monastery, 1988. Photo: Wikimedia. Two years earlier, she had welcomed Viktor Medvedchuk’s wife, Oksana Marchenko, with embraces onto the monastery grounds. Marchenko was filming another episode of “The Pilgrimess” in Zymne, called her “dear mommy,” and said they had known each other for many years. Matushka Stefana was among the honored guests at Medvedchuk and Marchenko’s wedding in 2003. A hotel for 100 hryvnias and few pilgrims — “Are many people visiting now?” — “Few, very few…” laments a security guard. The four-story monastery hotel, which can accommodate over 150 pilgrims in six-bed rooms and housed displaced persons at the beginning of the full-scale war, is now practically empty. Although accommodation here (including meals) costs only 100 hryvnias per day. The grounds are well-maintained: besides churches, a bell tower, and cells, there is a regency school, its own small dairy farm, plots for gardening, a refectory, a sewing workshop, and even an ophthalmology center where a doctor from Lutsk visits every weekend. About a dozen workers take care of the farm. Zymne Monastery hotel complex. Photo: hromadske. Services are held in Church Slavonic in the main stone church of the Zymne Monastery, the Dormition Cathedral. However, during the liturgies, there is a prayer “for the soldiers.” — Soldiers are remembered every day. For all soldiers on the battlefield, those who perished and those missing in action. These are terrible times. Now prayers must be directed to God to stop the war... And to stop the persecution of the Orthodox faith, — says one of the respected nuns. There are about forty nuns here. — In our [village], almost every house has someone either at war, killed, or captured. Here we have a matushka whose son is an officer. And he has been in captivity since the first days of the war, — says a local resident, a parishioner of the monastery. She adds with a sigh that there are few people here now: — They used to visit. But now things are stirred up everywhere... — referring to the transition of some communities from the UOC to the OCU. — They are pounding away, dividing, and turning people against each other... They say: “Ah, these are ‘katsaps’ here, they are Russians!” How are they Russian when this has always been the Ukrainian Orthodox Church? What is Russian about it? It is God’s Church. And it answers to no one. Well, Patriarch Kirill visited... So what. That’s history, — a nun laments. The pilgrim hotel comes alive when organized groups arrive. For example, for the third time, an event was held here for women and children of fallen soldiers — the program included master classes, a tour, psychological sessions, and a meeting with the abbess. According to the monastery, 30 women found “spiritual support, peace, and comfort” here. At the same time, how psychologists are selected and where the funding comes from, including for the maintenance of the large complex, the convent did not answer by the time of publication. Abbess Stefana refused an interview during Lent. “No contact with the Medvedchuks, but I pray for them” After spending a few days at the Zymne Monastery, we did not notice any overtly pro-Russian narratives there. The monastery has stavropegia, meaning it is directly subordinate to the head of the UOC, Metropolitan Onufriy, but not directly to the Russian Orthodox Church, unlike, for example, the Korets Monastery. Regarding possible ties with Medvedchuk and financing, we could not communicate with the abbess. During a service in the Dormition Cathedral on the grounds of the Zymne Monastery. Photo: hromadske. Judging by her last interview with local journalists, she responded to the question about the possibility of the monastery joining the OCU by saying: “You have a director. And I am a novice under our Beatitude (Onufriy. — Editor’s note). We are, as they say, on obedience to our primate. Therefore, we personally should not make any decisions. We pray, and our main task is to pray for all people, so that there may be peace, tranquility, and prosperity in our Ukraine, and that people may live in abundance. We pray for everyone who has turned to me... I have many soldiers written down for whom I pray. Morning and evening. And our church prays. And I personally,” said the abbess. She then confirmed that the monastery had received funding from Medvedchuk in the past and maintained close ties with him. However, despite his suspicion of treason and current presence in Russia, she remained steadfast. Abbess Stefana (right), Viktor Medvedchuk, and Oksana Marchenko (center). Photo: open sources. “Just as I do not betray God, I never betray people. Those who helped, who revived it, I pray for them. But we have no contact (with the Medvedchuk family — Editor’s note). But I pray for them. I pray daily. Because they did a lot for the revival of the convent. When our cathedral was in a dilapidated state, he was no longer involved in politics but helped a lot personally. I do not interfere in politics. I never asked him such questions. (...) I gave him a sermon. About the church. About the convent, about history. I know how to live according to the Gospel. I know that,” noted the abbess, finally adding: “Let them decide themselves, these politicians. But do not touch the church. For it is not without consequences, you understand? The church is eternal, God is eternal. The communists fought against it, and who only fought against it. But godless authorities always suffer defeat here.” A question for the Security Service? From the window of the pilgrim hotel, the helipad is visible. In the past, it was used by both Metropolitan Onufriy and Medvedchuk with Oksana Marchenko. Practically adjacent is the village council. Its head, Vyacheslav Katolyk, says he cannot say anything bad about the monastery. And he knows nothing about their financing beyond charitable contributions. Memorial plaque for fallen defenders near the Zymne village council. Photo: hromadske. — The helipad is just a parking spot with an 'H' drawn on it. There is more fiction than reality. It is often confused with Yanukovych's construction of a helipad over the Dnipro (referring to costs of 290 million hryvnias. — Editor’s note). No one flies there today. Honestly, I have never heard the monastery, during services or from the abbess or nuns, say anything against Ukraine or the army, or utter any pro-Russian statements. Never, — assures the headman. According to him, the SBU conducted a check of the Zymne Monastery in 2022 and found nothing. Regarding whether the village council considers it necessary to terminate the lease agreement with the Zymne Monastery (given the entry into force of the law prohibiting religious institutions linked to Russia), he says it is not within their authority. — First, the decision must be made by the church community, and then the decision goes to the regional administration level. I don't see a problem at all. It is overblown. If there are any issues (regarding pro-Russian sentiment. — Editor’s note), it's a matter for the Security Service, not the monastery. But a check was conducted. A bus with armed men cordoned off the territory and checked from the south, but found nothing similar. Therefore, there were no grounds. Under one of the posts by the community head who went to bless willow branches at the Zymne Monastery, many in the comments expressed indignation that he was a parishioner of the UOC-MP church. He responded that he has been attending the monastery since childhood and his greatest dream is for the UOC and OCU to unite. 50-year lease agreement Through decisions of the village council, at least five land plots totaling almost 16 hectares were transferred to the Zymne Monastery for permanent use at various times (from 1992 to 2021). This is effectively a perpetual lease. According to the lease agreement for the buildings, obtained by hromadske, the cult buildings, which are state property, were transferred to the monastery for gratuitous use for 50 years, until December 31, 2069, by a decision of the Volyn Regional State Administration in 2020. The main church of the Zymne Monastery — the Dormition Cathedral. Photo: hromadske. The Volyn Regional State Administration has the right to initiate changes to the agreement or to terminate it, but it is worded such that unilateral termination of its terms is not permitted. The state has leverage to reclaim the monastery, believes MP from the Volyn region Ihor Huz, who appealed to the National Security and Defense Council regarding the check of the Zymne Monastery. — There are possibilities to rely on court decisions, and the state is moving slowly but surely [in this direction]. But if there is a threat to national interests, given the decisions made by the National Security and Defense Council during the war, sanctions and other measures can be taken. I believe that for individual institutions of the UOC, and effectively the ROC in Ukraine, this approach can be taken. Here (in the monastery. — Editor’s note), Medvedchuk was closely integrated, and this is not easily dismantled. Belief in loyalty to Ukraine is possible only by breaking with the ROC and the UOC. But they will likely not go for it, — stated Huz. The State Service for Ethno-politics and Freedom of Conscience, which, in accordance with the adopted law, is conducting research on the affiliation of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC with the ROC, states that they have not yet reached the Zymne Monastery. So far, court cases have only been initiated regarding two monasteries: Korets and Holosiivskyi. On the grounds of the Zymne Monastery. Photo: hromadske. — Regarding the research on religious organizations of the UOC, we are moving from the top down within the hierarchical structure of the UOC. We cannot conduct many studies at once because the law requires us to go to court if a religious organization does not comply with our order. Therefore, we must rely on the capabilities of the Service for the Enforcement of Judgments, — noted Vyacheslav Horshkov, coordinator of cooperation with religious communities at the State Service. *** According to the latest sociological survey by the Razumkov Center on the church-religious situation in Ukraine, after the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, the number of those who identify themselves as adherents of the UOC (MP) has significantly decreased: from 13% in 2021 to 5% in 2025. The largest number of UOC (MP) adherents are currently in the Western region — they constitute 10% of respondents. In the Central and Eastern regions, it's 4%, and in the Southern region, it's 3%. The largest proportion of OCU adherents are among residents of the Central region (53%). In the South, it's 40%, in the East, 37%, and in the Western region, 30%. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, there were 8,782 churches of the Moscow Patriarchate operating in Ukraine. In almost four years of war, 934 religious communities have officially transferred to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Some communities have ceased their activities, but most continue to function, often without indicating their connection to the MP. Therefore, 7,826 churches with ties to the aggressor country remain. At the same time, the OCU notes that they currently have about 9,000 religious communities under their jurisdiction. With the support of "Media Network"

New Leader of Venezuela Carries Out 'Purges' in Power After Maduro's Overthrow - NYT

Acting President of Venezuela, Delsy Rodriguez, has carried out 'purges' in the upper echelons of power following the overthrow of Nicolas Maduro. This is reported by The New York Times, citing sources. The detentions are carried out without public explanation, but often with the approval of the White House, and sometimes at its direct insistence. Rodriguez likely does not make all the decisions herself. Several NYT interlocutors compared her position to 'a gun to her head': the US has repeatedly threatened Caracas with a new invasion if the authorities refuse to cooperate. In three months after Maduro's overthrow, she dismissed 17 ministers, replaced military commanders, and appointed new diplomats. Rodriguez oversaw the detention of at least three businessmen linked to Maduro, fired several of his relatives, and deprived most of his family of access to oil contracts, forbidding them from appearing in the media. In their place, she appointed loyalists or supported businessmen connected to her. Additionally, she opened access to Venezuela's oil and mining sectors to American investors. As the publication notes, the largest redistribution of power in Venezuela in recent decades has not brought more transparency or pluralism to the country's government, which remains authoritarian. The Venezuelan opposition states that Rodriguez is not trying to return the country to democracy, but is consolidating her own power.

Akhmat fighters robbed several houses in a border village in the Belgorod region. Military police and authorities did nothing - 'Pepel'

On April 9, several cars with Chechen servicemen and "Akhmat" inscriptions instead of license plates arrived in the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, Shebekinsky district. The soldiers began to break into houses and take out valuables. Local residents were told to "shut up" - and were threatened with weapons. This was reported by the publication "Pepel" citing sources. Residents complained to the military police - "but [the Chechens] also cursed them out" and they "could do nothing": "They appealed to [the head of the administration of Novaya Tavolzhanka, Sergey] Parika - he just shrugs his shoulders. Local channels are silent. How are we supposed to live? Drones, shelling. There have been cases of theft and looting before, but not in broad daylight," residents of Tavolzhanka told the publication. When one of the villagers took out his phone to record the crimes on camera, he was hit with the butt of an assault rifle. The fact of looting was also confirmed to "Pepel" by several residents of Novaya Tavolzhanka who do not live there but heard about what happened from those who remained in the village.

Georgian Dream Plays the Geography Card for Dialogue with Europe. Moscow Resorts to Threats of Visas, Sanctions, and Flight Cancellations

Georgia, which refuses to comply with EU recommendations, was recently again not invited to a European event – the Three Seas Initiative summit, while Azerbaijan was invited. Official Tbilisi expressed indignation and advised Brussels to look more closely at the map to assess the strategic role of Georgian seaports on the East-West global route. The President of Azerbaijan, who specially came to Tbilisi for this purpose, also recalled the importance of regional projects related to Europe for the South Caucasus. Ilham Aliyev gave analysts much to think about due to his unexpected personal meeting with billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who currently holds no state position. Does this mean that Georgian Dream will have to take concrete steps to improve relations with the West, especially since the ruling party has just lost practically its only serious ally in Europe in the person of Viktor Orbán? In Moscow, they have covered themselves and already threatened: if Georgia joins the EU, Russia will reintroduce the visa regime, stop air traffic, and ban Georgian wine. Supporters of the Georgian opposition during a protest in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, December 2, 2024. Photo: David Mdzinarishvili / EPA.A Geography Lesson The Three Seas Initiative (Trimarium) is a platform uniting countries between the Adriatic, Baltic, and Black Seas. In late March, the tenth summit of the Initiative was held in Zagreb, where issues of regional connectivity, infrastructure development, and energy security were discussed. Georgia was not invited. "It's hard not to smile when the EU talks about connectivity, holds events, but the main country ensuring connectivity is not invited. With such an approach, only Europe will lose," stated Maka Bochorishvili, head of the Georgian Foreign Ministry, regarding this matter. "Any speculation regarding Georgia's role is simply ignorance. If you look closely at the map, it's clear what role Georgia plays in the context of regional cooperation." Parliamentary summit of the Three Seas Initiative at the National and University Library in Zagreb, Croatia, March 25. Photo: Goran Stanzl / PIXSELL / Alamy / Scanpix / LETA.Against the backdrop of Europe's reluctance to invite the Georgian Foreign Minister, Maka Bochorishvili is not wasting time: according to the ministry's report, the chief Georgian diplomat spent the entire past year developing cooperation with Central Asian countries. "Last year, we visited Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan several times; we also plan visits to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to intensify cooperation with all five Central Asian countries. Azerbaijan recently joined this format, and it has become a cooperation format between six states. This is particularly important for us, as the transit role and function of Azerbaijan without Georgia are, of course, unthinkable," assured Maka Bochorishvili. The Foreign Minister did not mention that Georgia has not been invited to the Davos economic summit for the second year and was not welcomed at a key event like the EU enlargement forum last year. "In Brussels itself, they continue to insist that Georgia is only a candidate country for the EU on paper, as the government refuses to comply with EU recommendations. Orbán and Dodon Whom does Georgian Dream communicate with when it doesn't travel to Central Asia or host guests from there? In Europe, Hungary has been the main destination for Georgian Dream in the last two years – it is practically the only country where the Georgian government was received with genuine joy. The pleasure was mutual: Viktor Orbán was considered the main defender of Georgian Dream in Brussels. It was the Hungarian Prime Minister's position that prevented the EU from imposing sanctions against the Georgian leadership, including against the country's informal leader, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. In one year, the Georgian Foreign Minister met with her Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó at least ten times – the same Szijjártó from whom, as it recently became known, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov demanded assistance in excluding members of Russian oligarchs' families from EU sanctions lists. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze in Budapest, Hungary, March 21, 2026. Photo: Zoltan Fischer / EPA.Georgian Dream, which even sent observers to the Hungarian elections, did not hide its support for Orbán. Georgian prime ministers have participated for years in the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where Orbán, among other things, presented himself as a supporter of Donald Trump. The current Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze also attended this conference this year. There, he called Orbán a "patriot" whose election would allow Hungary and the entire EU to prosper. It seems that the forum itself will become a memory: Peter Magyar, Orbán's rival who won the election, stated that the government no longer intends to finance this conference from the state budget. "I believe the state should not have financed them in the first place – it was a crime," emphasized Magyar, adding, however, that CPAC could still come to Budapest, but at the expense of Orbán's Fidesz party or his allies' money. Previously, there were persistent rumors that Orbán received financial support from Georgia, but henceforth Georgian Dream and Ivanishvili are unlikely to finance Orbán's political activities. Immediately after his election defeat, Georgian Dream speakers expressed readiness to "cooperate with the new Hungarian authorities, with whom Georgia has mutual interests." At the same time, no one in Georgian Dream publicly mourned Orbán's loss. They even stopped repeating the thesis that without him, Hungary would be "broken under the pressure of Brussels." "Now, Dream hopes that Magyar will "continue a pragmatic policy," meaning Hungary's position on sanctions against Georgia will not change. If Orbán is a long-time associate of Georgian Dream, then in early April, new friends visited Tbilisi – parliamentarians from Moldova, exclusively from the pro-Russian opposition, without representatives from President Maia Sandu's ruling party "Action and Solidarity." The delegation was led by former Moldovan President Igor Dodon, who admitted to journalists that he had something to learn from Georgian Dream: "I think certain issues concerning national security could be an example for us to follow. Georgia is an example of defending national interests, which is why the [Moldovan] ruling party is boycotting this visit... Moldova will not survive without neutrality. As for the European Union, we must negotiate, but there are issues where Georgia's and Moldova's interests converge... For example, we should not have joined the sanctions [against Russia] – you didn't join, and you have 10% economic growth, we joined – and we have minus 0.5%. Another issue is traditional values, here you have a firm stance..." It would be fair to note that no one from Georgian Dream was eager to pose for cameras next to Dodon. Georgian deputies, caught by journalists, justified themselves by saying that the host had not specially invited anyone and that Chișinău "decided for themselves who would go to Tbilisi." However, the opposition noted that Dodon came to Tbilisi directly from Moscow, "which means he could have brought some message from Putin." A week later, however, everyone forgot about Dodon, as Ilham Aliyev unexpectedly arrived in Tbilisi on April 7. Azerbaijan as the New Regional Leader Although Azerbaijan is deservedly called Georgia's "strategic partner number one," Ilham Aliyev last visited Georgia a long time ago, in October 2023, when a different prime minister was in office. Aliyev's unannounced visit did not seem as routine as the frequent visits of Georgian prime ministers to Baku. The visit seemed urgent, and the Azerbaijani delegation was very representative: ministers of foreign affairs, economy, and transport. It is understandable that infrastructure was discussed first and foremost, as cargo transportation from Azerbaijan to Georgia has been growing significantly each year. It is worth recalling here that both Baku and Yerevan often complain about delays in transportation through Georgian territory precisely now, when Azerbaijan and Armenia have begun to exchange goods for the first time in 30 years. At a briefing, Aliyev unambiguously reminded that Azerbaijan has already invested $3.6 billion in Georgia's economy and emphasized "new investment projects and opportunities." Amidst the military actions in Iran, the President of Azerbaijan called for maintaining focus on "peace, stability, and security" in the region, and also thanked the Georgian leadership "for their assistance" in reconciling Baku and Yerevan. Although all the protocol formalities of the official visit were observed, the most important part was Ilham Aliyev's meeting with Bidzina Ivanishvili. The President of Azerbaijan was invited to the billionaire's Tbilisi residence near the Botanical Garden. The silent protocol footage published that day showed Ivanishvili introducing Georgian government ministers to Aliyev at his private residence, showing him the surrounding views through stained-glass windows, and engaging in a lively conversation over lunch. Prime Minister Kobakhidze awkwardly but obediently followed Aliyev and Ivanishvili like a shadow. Ivanishvili was Prime Minister of Georgia for only one year and resigned voluntarily 13 years ago. He is currently the honorary chairman of the ruling party and holds no official positions. However, no one doubts that it is Ivanishvili who truly runs the country. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of Georgia Mikheil Kavelashvili before a meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia, April 6, 2026. Photo: Irakli Gedenidze / REUTERS / Scanpix / LETA.A "home" reception at Ivanishvili's during an official state visit – this seems to have happened for the first time and only emphasized the seriousness of the situation. Most likely, this meeting took place at the request of Ilham Aliyev himself. For Ivanishvili, such attention from the Azerbaijani leader is also of interest, observers are confident. "After all, if Georgia has lost its status as a strategic partner of the USA, then Azerbaijan has just secured it and has effectively become the main pillar of the States in the South Caucasus. At the same time, Azerbaijan maintains a principled yet stable position regarding Russia. Both Azerbaijan and Armenia, unlike Georgia, are now engaged in implementing the "Trump Route" (TRIPP – Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity), a 40 km transport route that will pass through Armenia and connect Azerbaijan with its exclave – Nakhchivan. Azerbaijan calls this direction the Zangezur corridor, and Armenia calls it the Syunik corridor. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recently announced that, "despite the complex international situation," the processes around the TRIPP project are "not only not slowing down but, on the contrary, are gaining momentum in their implementation." Ilham Aliyev also recently reported on the "Trump Route" and stated that the highway included in the project is 90% ready, and the railway is 70% ready. Aliyev also added that the construction of the Kars-Nakhchivan railway has begun in Turkey: "Thus, the interaction and coordinated implementation of these projects will open a new important international corridor." Although Georgia is not included in the "Trump Route," Azerbaijan, through Georgia, is carrying out a global project for the transportation of oil and gas to Europe. There is also a project worth €3.5 billion, in which Georgia and Azerbaijan plan to participate under the EU flag together with Romania and Hungary – this is Black Sea Energy, a 1195-kilometer underwater electricity cable laid on the seabed of the Black Sea. " In the first stage, the cable's capacity is designed for exporting 4 GW of energy. The European Commission intends to allocate €2.3 billion for the underwater cable and has already assigned the project the status of PMI – "Project of Common Interest." The fact that the official visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Yerlan Koshanbayev, followed immediately after Aliyev's arrival in Georgia, becomes another argument for observers that Ivanishvili will often be reminded that Georgia is an important corridor for Caspian energy resources. Founder of the Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili, Tbilisi, Georgia, October 26, 2024. Photo: David Mdzinarishvili / EPA. - "Much indicates that Ivanishvili is playing with Russia, and therefore fears it, appearing in public behind armored glass, although no one threatens him except the Russian Federation," believes political scientist Paata Zakareishvili. "In the near future, we will see if Ivanishvili is ready to openly confront Russia, as Pashinyan does, for example, when defending Armenia's interests. He will certainly not behave like that, but perhaps he will "pull the chestnuts out of the fire" through Azerbaijan." Political scientist Gela Vasadze told "Novaya-Europe" that the South Caucasus, after the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, is beginning to act as an independent region. According to him, the key issue now is Georgia's participation in common transport and economic projects. He explains Aliyev's visit and his meeting with Ivanishvili by this: it is important for Azerbaijan to understand whether Georgia is ready to integrate into the new regional configuration and maintain ties with Europe. Moscow Raises the Stakes By this point, relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, which went through a difficult period last year, have been fully normalized – not least because Baku has further strengthened its position in the region, while Moscow, on the contrary, has significantly weakened. Perhaps Aliyev tried to share his confidence in relations with Moscow with Ivanishvili. And although this is only one version explaining the reasons for Aliyev's visit to Tbilisi, it seems that Moscow is seriously concerned and does not rule out that Georgia is on the verge of joining the EU. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova threatened to include Georgia in the list of unfriendly countries and apply economic pressure if it joins the European Union. This is a very unusual statement, considering that Georgian Dream is usually praised in Moscow for its pragmatic policy towards Russia and its steadfastness in confronting the West. " Zakharova justified this shift from favor to anger by stating that if a country joins the EU, it means "forced accession" to anti-Russian sanctions. "What will this mean for Georgia specifically? For example, the cessation of air traffic with Russia, the introduction of a strict visa regime. Russia would have to include – I'm not saying we want to do it – but, given the new EU requirements, Russia would have to include Georgia in the list of countries with unfriendly regimes and extend its retaliatory economic measures to it, with all the ensuing consequences for Georgian producers of mineral water, fruits, wine, everything that is brought into our country," said Zakharova. The European Union as a whole is not suitable for Georgia, believes the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, as it "imposes completely unfounded sanctions, provokes new anti-Russian military adventures, almost openly supports coup attempts, imposes alien anti-values on the Georgian people," and "literally forces them to abandon their own culture and identity."

Man Shoots Six People in Kyiv. The Attacker is a 57-Year-Old Russian Native and Ukrainian Military Pensioner. What is Known

On April 18, a man in Kyiv shot and killed six city residents, and another 14 people were injured. Initially, the attacker opened fire on passers-by on the street, and then barricaded himself in a supermarket, taking hostages, reported the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities stated that after an unsuccessful negotiation attempt, the shooter was killed by special forces. Four hostages were rescued. The Security Service of Ukraine is investigating the case as a terrorist act that resulted in deaths. According to preliminary data, it is known that the attacker was born in Moscow and lived in the Donetsk region for a long time. Moreover, he had been living in Kyiv for at least the last 10 years. More details about what is known about the attack in the Ukrainian capital are in the material of "Novaya Gazeta Europe." Police at the shooting scene in Kyiv. Photo: Telegram / SUSPILNE NOVINY. Shooting and Hostage Taking The attack occurred in the Holosiivskyi district of the city. According to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, the 57-year-old man shot people chaotically. He shot four people at close range while walking down the street, and killed a fifth person in a store. Another woman died in the hospital from a severe injury. After locking himself in a supermarket with the customers inside, he made no demands. Approximately 40 minutes after negotiations, which, according to Klymenko, "did not yield results," special forces stormed the building and killed the shooter. Among the dead is a couple, the parents of a 10-year-old boy, who himself was wounded and is in the hospital. The incident was classified as a terrorist act. The Ministry of Internal Affairs clarified that the weapon used by the man was officially registered. He renewed his permit for its storage and carrying in December 2025. The Ukrainian police are checking the circumstances of the permit issuance. The next day, April 19, Klymenko ordered an urgent investigation into the actions of the police during the attack. A video recording circulated on social media showing police officers near a person sitting on the street. After gunshots are heard, they scatter, leaving the person alone. Screams and gunshots are heard on the recording, and the footage shows one of the men in civilian clothes falling to the ground. "'To serve and protect' is not just a slogan. It must be backed by appropriate professional actions. Especially in critical moments when people's lives depend on it," the minister stated. The head of the National Police, Ivan Vyhovskyi, announced the suspension of police officers from their duties during the investigation. What is Known About the Shooter's Identity Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recorded a video address in connection with the terrorist attack. He expressed condolences to the relatives of the victims. "It is known that the attacker set fire to his apartment before going out onto the street with a weapon. He had previously been prosecuted. He lived in the Donetsk region for a long time and was born in Russia," Zelensky said. He added that the police are currently clarifying details regarding the attacker's identity. The shooting was carried out by a 57-year-old native of Moscow, the prosecutor's office clarified. Preliminary information suggests he used an automatic weapon. "Suspilne" reports that the man came out of his building's entrance around five in the evening on Saturday, shot several people, including a family with a 12-year-old child, walked down the street, where he killed two more people on the way, and reached a local supermarket. There, he opened fire again and took customers and store employees hostage. The shooter lived on the fifth floor of an apartment building. Before going out onto the street with a weapon, he set fire to his apartment. Anna Nikolaevna, who lives on the floor above, said she knew him well, as he had lived in this building for over ten years. She recalled his name was Dmitry. The publication "Ukrainska Pravda," citing its own sources, indicates the attacker's full name. He turned out to be 57-year-old Dmitry Vasilievich Vasilchenkov. The Ukrainian channel "Television Toronto" claims, citing unofficial information, that Vasilchenkov was born in Moscow but had Ukrainian citizenship. He permanently resided in Bakhmut, but also temporarily lived in Ryazan between 2015 and 2017. Later, he returned to Ukraine and lived in Kyiv on Demiivska Street, near which the shooting occurred. Alleged shooter Dmitry Vasilchenkov. Photo: Telegram / Vitaliy Glagola. "He lived alone, had no family here, he would greet people on the street. Three days ago, I saw him in the yard: I was weeding flowers on the lawn, and he came out of the entrance with a backpack, greeted me, and left. He bought the apartment. I haven't seen him today. Neighbors have already seen him running with a machine gun. I don't know what he did for a living because I never asked," a neighbor of the shooter told "Suspilne." Journalists from "Television Toronto" also claim to have found Vasilchenkov's Facebook account. "The page is signed "Bakhmut VDV" and was active from 2016 to 2019. He posted anti-Ukrainian and anti-Semitic posts. Vasilchenkov called for a forceful 'cleansing' of society, referring to Adolf Hitler's methods. He also denied Ukraine's legitimacy, using the phrase 'so-called Ukraine' in his publications. He openly regretted that terrorist Igor Girkin did not completely destroy Bakhmut in 2014," the channel reports. According to journalists, Vasilchenkov is a military pensioner of Ukraine. In 2023 and 2024, he won several lawsuits and obtained an increase in pension payments and an additional sum of 2,000 hryvnias. Also, in February 2024, the Holosiivskyi District Court acquitted him of criminal charges for intentional bodily harm, as Vasilchenkov reconciled with the victim.

The Babylonian Ribbon. Why Elon Musk, Imposing Right-Wing Ideology, Made Twitter Speak All Languages

Elon Musk leaves the US Capitol in Washington, DC, USA, May 21, 2025. Photo: Will Oliver / EPA. In the Russian-speaking segment of X (Twitter) in early April 2026, the term "Babylonian Ribbon" emerged – as a response to the mass implementation of the automatic post translation function, powered by the Grok neural network. The "sign inversion" in the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, where people stopped understanding each other due to the confusion of languages, is a hallmark of Russian-language self-irony. After all, Elon Musk "destroyed" not communication, but precisely language barriers. Now the user feed is filled with posts from all over the world, and the quality of AI translation has reached such a high level that it requires philological intuition to realize that you are reading not an original text from a compatriot, but the confession of a strange Japanese or Chilean. People react to the innovation differently: some with admiration welcome the unprecedented expansion of the audience and the opportunity to communicate without regard for languages. Others grumble discontentedly, like in the old Odesa anecdote about the tailor Shlema, who, due to his pathological resemblance to Karl Marx, was forced by the party committee to shave off his sideburns and beard, to which Shlema reasonably replied: "Shaving the beard is not a problem, but what will I do with my ideas?" " And it's true: the fact that a Japanese person will express their thoughts in Russian in my information field does not stop them from being Japanese, with all the unique trail of samurai originality. In this column, I would like to reflect on the place of the "Babylonian ribbon" in the broader context of social experiments to create "filter bubbles," which have been conducted in Web2 for over 20 years. To what extent does it continue the course towards deepening the effect of "social stroking," or, conversely, does it destroy the usual "coziness" of closed circles, which we have all so eagerly built with the help of new information technologies. Let's start with the "Babylonian ribbon" itself. The function began to be actively deployed worldwide in April 2026. The launch was officially announced by X Product Lead Nikita Bier. Key features of the technology: Grok, unlike old translation systems (like Google Translate), uses contextual understanding. It handles slang, memes, and specific "Twitter" language better, trying to preserve the author's irony and emotional tone; the translation function in X is enabled by default, meaning posts in foreign languages are displayed immediately in your interface language; a small label "Automatic translation by Grok" appears above the post. Next to it is a gear icon ⚙️, through which you can disable the function for a specific language or entirely. There is also an option to click "Show original" to see the text in the author's language. The key point here, in my opinion, is the automatic translation by default. We've already seen this on YouTube, where initially there was no option to disable the auto-translation feature in the interface. And this circumstance almost drove me to become a Luddite. On all my devices, operating systems, and social networks, the interface language is set to English (as it has been since 1990, when I first sat down at a computer), so Google stupidly and forcibly translated all Russian-language channels into English. And it was unbearable. Photo: Koshiro K / Alamy / Scanpix / LETA. It seems that at some point the streams of indignation reached a threatening quality, so Google had to back down and allow users to choose which languages to broadcast in. On Twitter, firstly, although automatic translation is enabled by default, it is initially disabled. Secondly, Grok's stylistic talents, reinforced by the lack of need to work in real-time audio mode (as with YouTube's simultaneous interpretation), create a unique effect of authenticity. In the vast majority of cases, X users cannot tell from the text itself that it is not a native speaker's statement, but its translation. Let's now see how the "Babylonian ribbon" fits or does not fit into the reality of "filter bubbles." The phenomenon of hidden personalization of information for social media users was first noticed by Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org. In 2011, he published the book "The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You" (Russian translation "Behind the Filter Wall: What the Internet Is Hiding from You"), from which millions of readers worldwide learned that, as it turns out, reality as presented in their social media feeds has very little to do with true reality. At some point, Pariser writes, he noticed that his friends with conservative views began to disappear from his Facebook feed. At the same time, he asked two friends to Google the brand "BP" (British Petroleum) during the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. One received news about investments, the other – information about the environmental disaster. " This discovery became the starting point for understanding that objective output no longer exists, and information filtering depends on a) your views and b) automatic algorithms that simultaneously care about both your psychological comfort and the growth of the parent corporation's revenue (by maximizing clicks). As a result, inhabitants of the digital world have long settled in "personalized information spaces" where only pleasant stories, "correct" views, and the only "fair" assessments of events circulate. Everything that does not fit the understanding of correctness and pleasantness is kindly discarded from the feed. Such personalized information spaces were called "echo chambers." The first question to ask today in the context of our topic is: "To what extent does the "Babylonian ribbon" serve to deepen the "filter bubble"? Or vice versa: does it destroy the bubble and release ordinary people into freedom?" Freedom is dismissed outright: although Eli Pariser blamed corporate culture and its automatic algorithms for all the ills, the real inspirer of the "filter bubble" was the digital information consumer himself, who scoured the internet in search of precisely those texts, articles, posts, and statements that confirmed his a priori point of view, and contemptuously rejected any "dissent." As for corporate algorithms, they merely obediently fulfilled the wishes of buyers in the spirit of capitalism's main commandment: "Different strokes for different folks" (this translates perfectly into Russian with the saying "we Tatars don't care...", but it's indecent further, so google it yourself). A van in Whitehall with a sign demanding a ban on the X platform, following a scandal involving the introduction of Grok technology, London, UK, January 14, 2026. Photo: Michael Melia / Alamy / Scanpix / LETA. In short, the ordinary person does not perceive their echo chamber as a lack of freedom. The filter bubble is their conscious and comfortable choice, so there is nowhere to release them. Following the "release of ordinary people into freedom," the illusion of the "collapse of the filter bubble" can also be discarded. Social stroking (acting through the like system) has not been canceled, so there is no doubt that the "Babylonian ribbon" will add not just anything and without discrimination to our feed, but only tweets from "like-minded people" (read: colleagues from echo chambers) from other countries and languages. As a result, the filter bubble will not disappear, but on the contrary, will expand to planetary proportions. So, is everything obvious? Polish the bubble with new technologies? Not quite. I propose to play my favorite antinomy: in the next two paragraphs, I will prove that the "Babylonian ribbon" will not just tear echo chambers to shreds, but will also mark a completely new stage in human socio-information history. Grok can masterfully translate into the user's native language tweets written by representatives of other nations, countries, and cultures. And even with the preservation of all the unique linguo-emotional "tricks": author's expression, humor, irony, slang, and other quirks. The trick, however, is that along with all these beauties, the user will also discover unique – often completely incomprehensible, and perhaps even unpleasant! – features of the national character. Foreign logic, foreign stereotypes, foreign hierarchies of values, formed over centuries (and sometimes millennia) of a unique historical path of peoples and nations. And all these countless nuances, along with, of course, "universal human values," will flow, through the efforts of the "Babylonian ribbon," into our cozy echo chamber. What do you think will happen to our "filter bubble"? Will it retain all its ideological clarity and structural integrity after this? " The question is rhetorical: it will not retain. The Babylonian ribbon will destroy the "filter bubble." Yes, such is the antinomy. And if so, it becomes unclear: why is Elon Musk voluntarily dismantling the echo chambers that his colleagues in the Web2 information business have diligently built for almost a quarter of a century? I think this contradiction is illusory and is easily resolved by moving away from a static perception of reality. If we believe that the world today is the same as it was in the last quarter of a century, then Elon Musk's logic indeed seems flawed. Reality, however, is such that the era of cozy comfort of echo chambers has passed. This global shift was demanded and produced not by corporations, governments, or dictators, but by the pinnacle of creation – homo sapiens. It is he, our dear homo, who got tired of living peacefully and wanted "action." Well, cunning politicians quickly identified the trend and kindly provided the "action." Each, of course, to the extent of their own corruption. But the logic is inevitable: "You asked – we gave you!" Photo: Matthias Balk / dpa / Scanpix / LETA. What is the global shift? Precisely what the "Babylonian ribbon" is designed to ensure: a departure from the comfortable cocoon of familiar ideas and a collision with other ideas, even those close in spirit. A collision due to the aforementioned nuances – national and socio-cultural. Is this a negative or positive shift for us? To begin with, it's good to understand that nothing will change regardless of how we assess it. Alea iacta est ("The die is cast" – Ed.). All that remains is to adapt to the new reality and try to find the positives in it. Fortunately, we don't have to look far. The "Babylonian ribbon" will not only cause friction but also stimulate dialogue! Initially, it may be confrontational activity, but it will inevitably develop into a constructive search for compromises, because the situation bellum omnium contra omnes ("war of all against all" – Ed.) is always unstable and quickly reaches some kind of equilibrium. The expansion of communication by including seamless translations of tweets from representatives of other cultures and languages into the usual feed will quickly lead to confrontations with unfamiliar variations even within one's own filter bubble. One will inevitably have to engage in unplanned discussions, participate in exchanges of views, debate, and defend one's position. That is, to conduct a dialogue! " And any dialogue is the death of a closed system, of any echo chamber, even in its most abstract forms, whether it be a religious cult, state ideology, or national autarky. The last question: why does Elon Musk and the X corporation need our dialogues? For Musk, as one of the dark angels (demons?) destroying Woke culture today, a planetary dialogue outside linguistic contexts is an ideal platform for proselytizing right-wing ideas. For the X corporation, the erosion of user echo chambers through the "Babylonian ribbon" is not a matter of ideology, but a matter of money. Does anyone really think that a corporation with an annual revenue of $3 billion radically changed the established format of communication out of naivety or for a laugh? I venture to suggest that X decided to replace echo chambers with a model of active collision of ideas and forced dialogue only after long tests and closed pilot launches, which confirmed that the "Babylonian ribbon" most accurately corresponds to the global shift towards restless "action." Well, for us users, all that remains is to try to live to see the completion of the experiment.

In Tomsk, a monument to victims of political repression was demolished. Today, Russia observes the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People by decision of the authorities

In Tomsk's Square of Remembrance, the Stone of Sorrow and other memorial stones installed in memory of repressed Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Estonians, and Kalmyks were dismantled. This is reported by 7x7 and "Govorit NeMoskva". The Tomsk Mayor's Office stated that the square was fenced off after a local resident reported a "probability of garage collapse." Activist Anton Isakov stated that the version seems implausible, as the distance from the square to the garage is over 50 meters. Later, the mayor's office deleted the post without explaining the reasons. "Apparently, they considered the story about the falling garage too absurd," wrote Ksenia Fadeeva, former head of Navalny's headquarters in Tomsk. The square is still guarded by the police. Security forces prohibit photography and ask to delete already taken pictures, as well as record passport data of those who come to the square. The Square of Remembrance was opened in 1992 on the initiative of the city administration and "Memorial," which last week was declared an "extremist organization." The foundation stone was laid in 1989. At the end of last year, Vladimir Putin signed a law establishing April 19 as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People in Russia.

Early Parliamentary Elections Held in Bulgaria Today - Eighth in Five Years

Early parliamentary elections are being held in Bulgaria on April 19, the eighth in the last five years. 24 parties and coalitions are participating, with the coalition "Progressive Bulgaria" led by former eurosceptic president Rumen Radev being the main contender for victory. The coalition is expected to win 30-40% of the vote, despite being hastily formed weeks before the elections. Radev himself left the presidency in January amid ongoing mass protests. Media outlets noted that his term was legally his last and predicted he would form a new party for parliamentary elections. BBC and Politico compare Rumen Radev to former Hungarian leader Viktor Orban due to his euroscepticism, refusal to impose sanctions on Moscow, provide aid packages to Kyiv, and his desire to "restore dialogue with Russia." As RBC notes, Bulgaria has been in a prolonged political crisis since 2020, resulting in a series of snap parliamentary elections and frequent government changes. Since 2021, the country has been governed primarily by caretaker governments. Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic, with the National Assembly, a unicameral parliament of 240 deputies, being the key governing body that passes laws and approves the government.

Saints and the Secret Island of Satanists. Epstein's Files Point to Close Ties with the Catholic Church and a Special Interest in Russia

On January 30, the US Department of Justice released a significant volume of materials from the case of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, including over 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images. Since then, the establishment has been trembling weekly, with new details and names emerging daily. In April, independent UN experts again called for all individuals implicated in the dossier to be held accountable, emphasizing that the published data indicates the continuation of systemic violence by "patriarchal power systems." "Novaya Gazeta Europe" examined which religious figures are mentioned in Epstein's dossier and whether there is anything about Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church. And they found something. Jeffrey Epstein. Photo: U.S. Department of Justice. "The Most Secret" Bank - in the Vatican. "The most significant change in the Vatican may not be the sudden resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, but the change in leadership at the Institute for the Works of Religion, the Vatican Bank," Jeffrey Epstein wrote on February 21, 2013, seven days before the sensational abdication of the pontiff, in a letter to Larry Summers – his confidant and business partner, former Treasury Secretary in Bill Clinton's cabinet. Today, Summers is part of the "Group of Thirty" – a rather influential association of top bankers and economists, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. Earlier this year, the letter was published by the US Department of Justice as part of the "Epstein Library," consisting of approximately 3 million files. The "patron," already convicted and having served time for sexual abuse, draws the attention of his important partner to the uniqueness of the Vatican as a financial jurisdiction, opaque to international regulatory bodies and allowing "elite clients to avoid any scrutiny of their transactions." Epstein links Benedict XVI's resignation to a decision made by the College of Cardinals in late 2012 to appoint Ettore Gotti Tedeschi's successor, Ettore von Freiberg, as the new director of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) – replacing Gotti Tedeschi, who was arrested in Italy. The secret correspondence between Tedeschi and Benedict XVI at that time fell into the hands of the Rome prosecutor. Later, under Pope Francis, who managed to close thousands of suspicious accounts of non-Vatican citizens at the IOR, Tedeschi was released but soon supported a campaign against Francis. Forbes recognized the Vatican Bank as "the world's most secret," and Tedeschi presented himself as a victim of some international influential lobby interested in the opacity of the IOR. Rumor has it that the Vatican Bank also holds some assets affiliated with Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev), who has been under sanctions from several Western countries since 2022. It cannot be said that the purpose of Epstein's message to Summers is fully clear. It can be assumed that the partners were developing some schemes related to specific methods of money laundering through the IOR. Specific Common Interest. If Epstein's attitude towards Benedict XVI's resignation is impossible to understand from the correspondence, then he clearly sympathized with the idea of retiring "too left-wing" Pope Francis after his predecessor. It is not for nothing that Donald Trump's former National Security Advisor Steve Bannon called on Epstein himself in June 2019 to "overthrow Francis." Bannon has a reputation as one of the ideologists of the ultra-right wing of MAGA, embodied by the website Breitbart and the "Movement" center he created, which consolidates far-right parties in Europe. According to Bannon, Francis is on par with the Clintons and the EU, supporting "globalist elites," and therefore should not occupy the papal throne. CNN journalists discovered jokingly ominous promises in Epstein's records to invite the Pope for "a massage" and to "organize a trip to the Middle East." But on July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested in the US on suspicion of organizing child trafficking for sexual exploitation, and a month later died in his prison cell. Thus, from the perspective of devout Catholics, God himself prevented him from carrying out his plan: Pope Francis outlived the scoundrel by almost six years. Jeffrey Epstein was not new to Vatican politics: his partner Richard Kahn reports in a letter to the financier-pedophile's financial consultant that his boss once lived in the Vatican with Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła, reign 1978–2005). One document from the published Epstein files indicates that the hacker who worked for him apparently had a Holy See passport – an extremely rare document issued only to a narrow circle of Vatican employees and diplomats. Despite the fact that John Paul II has been beatified by the Holy See and is revered in the Catholic Church as blessed, discussions among Catholics, including in his native Poland, about his responsibility for covering up cases of pedophilia among Catholic clergy have not subsided. Pedophilia is the main nerve connecting Epstein's case with the reputational crisis of modern Catholicism. John Paul II is accused of concealing cases of pedophilia among priests in the Archdiocese of Krakow, which he headed from 1964 to 1978. Later, in 1983, already as Pope, John Paul II amended the Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church, transferring the investigation of such cases from the dioceses to the Holy See and obliging victims to participate in church trials. According to several analysts, this complicated the procedure for considering accusations. Pope Benedict XVI addresses the faithful in St. Peter's Square, Vatican, September 6, 2006. Photo: Giuseppe Giglia / EPA. The first pedophilia scandal of the 21st century related to the Catholic Church erupted in the USA, where in 2004 an investigation was published, identifying the names of 10,667 children who were sexually abused by 4,392 priests (for comparison, about 35,000 Catholic priests serve in the US). But the real scale of the phenomenon is demonstrated by the report of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (CIASE), published on October 5, 2021. In France alone, the commission identified about 216,000 children who were sexually abused by clergy over the past 70 years. The report also noted that church leadership generally tried not to investigate such complaints; only in recent years has the Holy See recognized the seriousness and scale of the problem. Some dioceses (especially in the USA) have begun to pay compensation to victims of clerical pedophilia. The "Epstein Files" contain several mentions of the "patron's" financial involvement, convicted for corrupting minors, in Catholic Church youth projects. In particular, he generously financed children's Catholic camps in the U.S. Virgin Islands, making targeted donations to a special charitable foundation. " After Epstein had already been convicted in Florida, the Catholic foundation expressed its warm gratitude to him, calling the criminal a "patron of science and education." According to the indictment compiled by the FBI in 2007, from 1999 to 2005, Epstein paid for the services of at least 40 underage girls for giving him "massages" nude at the financier's Florida mansion. Often, such massages were accompanied by sexual acts, and one of the episodes was considered by the investigation as rape. Under US law, Epstein faced a life sentence, but he signed a mysterious deal with the prosecutor, receiving only 13 months of restricted freedom, which he served in comfortable conditions. The federal prosecutor of the Southern District of New York, with whom the deal was signed, was Alex Acosta at the time. As soon as Trump first became president, in early 2017, he appointed Acosta as Secretary of Labor, which, according to CNBC journalists, was a form of reward for "correctly" resolving the Epstein issue. Far more extensive charges, related to mysterious orgies on Epstein's private island Little St. James (U.S. Virgin Islands), where billionaires and politicians, including the brother of Britain's King Charles III, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, gathered, were planned to be brought after the financier's arrest in 2019. But the case was dropped after Epstein's mysterious death in his prison cell a month after his arrest. In 2023, Jeffrey Epstein's brother Mark wrote to the FBI that the suspect was murdered with the sanction of Donald Trump because he intended to publicize the names of his accomplices, including the current US president. Epstein's pedophilic crimes were never fully investigated; only one of Epstein's accomplices, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted in 2021 for complicity (human trafficking and pandering). The connection between Epstein's criminal group and U.S. charitable Catholic organizations that cared for minors requires thorough investigation. For now, it is known that the charitable organization "Caritas" and various Catholic dioceses received millions of dollars in funding for the organization of transfer of unaccompanied migrant children to private guardians and shelters. According to the government website USASpending.gov, Catholic structures received up to $449 million over several years for work with homeless children in the US, with the Archdiocese of Miami, in whose territory Epstein committed his crimes, being one of the top recipients of funding. The sheer number of homeless migrant children is staggering: from 2021-24 alone, about half a million minors without parental accompaniment crossed the border with Mexico, and a significant portion of them subsequently went missing. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, only about 90,000 such children were found by government agencies. In November 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives held joint hearings of the Subcommittees on National Security and Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability, where data was discussed indicating that cross-border child trafficking is entirely criminal. Border patrol officers and experts spoke at the hearings, providing examples of child migrant trafficking and illegal organ harvesting. Outright "Satanism" The Orthodox Church is mentioned several dozen times in the "Epstein Files" - usually in media publications that ended up in the dossier and in classified CIA bulletins that the financier illegally obtained. It is known that in the late 1990s, Epstein began visiting Russia quite often, but his interest was apparently not in holy sites, but in modeling agencies that selected beautiful girls, and business structures involved in international money laundering schemes. The "Dossier" Center published a discreet request that Epstein made in 2015 to his Russian acquaintance, a graduate of the FSB Academy and chairman of the board of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Sergey Belyakov, who readily provided Epstein with a dossier on a girl who tried to blackmail the financier. In return letters, Epstein shared with Belyakov his belief in Russia's "great mission" and understood the "new prospects" opened by Russia's annexation of Crimea. Incidentally, Belyakov later became an advisor to the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev – the current chief Kremlin negotiator with the Trump administration. These contacts gave rise to a conspiracy theory that Epstein was an agent of the Russian special services, and his island was their "honey trap." The documents published by the US Department of Justice include a letter from Jennifer Freeman, an attorney at Marsh Law Firm, written in October 2019, after Epstein's death. Freeman represented the interests of victims of sexual violence and pedophilia who had suffered from the financier and his accomplices. The document mentions that one of the victims suffered abuse from an Orthodox priest, whose name is censored. A small building on Little St. James Island. Photo: U.S. Department of Justice. The Epstein Cult. On Epstein's private island, there was a mysterious cult object - a kind of chapel with a golden dome and golden gargoyle statues on the roof (the dome was later dismantled, and the statues were destroyed by a hurricane). The object is faced with alternating white and blue tiles, which involuntarily evokes associations with ancient Egyptian or Mesopotamian temples. It is known that Epstein was interested in religious relics that could be used for occult rituals - for example, he kept fragments of the kiswah (the covering of the Kaaba - the main shrine of Muslims in Mecca) and a stone from the inner wall of the Kaaba. Epstein, who had Jewish Brooklyn roots, was not religious in the classical sense of the word. Russian propaganda - both church and state - is doing its best to interpret his beliefs as "satanism," which was declared an "extremist organization" by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in July last year. Epstein's longtime companion, Belarusian Karina Shulyak, to whom he bequeathed over $100 million, allegedly posted information on social network X about human sacrifices, implying that Trump should be held responsible for them. The post was soon deleted. Even before the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the World Russian People's Council - a church-public body headed by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and uniting leading public figures in Russia - resolved that the West had "fallen into Satanism," and Russia was fulfilling a divine "mission of the holder, protecting the world" from this very West. In this context, almost all Russian analysis concerning Epstein boils down to identifying signs of Satanism. "Komsomolskaya Pravda" drew attention to Epstein's interest in the works of Marina Abramović - a Serbian artist (incidentally, the niece of Patriarch Barnabas!), living in the Netherlands. The publication shows a photo of Abramović with banker Jacob Rothschild against the backdrop of Thomas Lawrence's (1769–1830) painting "Satan Calling His Legions." Within this conspiracy theory, Stanley Kubrick's last film "Eyes Wide Shut" (1999), which depicts a ritualistic satanic orgy in New York, is seen as a hint at the "secret springs of world politics and capital." Attention is drawn to the fact that Kubrick died unexpectedly a few days after completing the film's editing. A hint of Epstein's island is also seen in the series "Westworld" (2016-22), which takes place in a closed amusement park where the rich and powerful indulge in debauchery. The official position of the Russian Orthodox Church was presented shortly after the publication of the "Epstein Files" by the chairman of the patriarchal commission for family issues, priest Feodor Lukyanov. According to him, very influential people in the West patronize child trafficking, so the Russian state must protect future generations - "primarily in the information space." The website "Pravoslavie.Ru," close to Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), published a whole "theological analysis" of the "Epstein Files," carried out by priest Tarasiy Borozents, a cleric of the Khanty-Mansiysk Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church who fled from Ukraine to the Russian Federation. He insists that everything that happened on Epstein's island was a "ritual of initiation into the caste of the chosen," "binding the elite with common anti-values, common complicity in "pure" evil." Strangely enough, Tarasiy draws a parallel between the island and an Orthodox monastery: but "if a monastery is a place for mortifying passions and spiritual upbringing through obedience and prayer, then Epstein's island is a place for cultivating the darkest passions and killing the spirit." The official Russian position was formulated by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: "The fact that this is pure Satanism, probably, does not need to be explained to a normal person." In essence, the head of Russian diplomacy supported the myth of a "secret world government of Satanists," which until recently was the lot of the most radically marginal groups, even by Russian standards. Lavrov called it a "deep alliance that controls the entire West and tries to control the entire world." It seems that the "Epstein Files" risk repeating the fate of WikiLeaks: illusions that a new gigantic array of "secret documents" will explain the mysteries of world politics and business are quickly replaced by disappointment and the recognition that this is "just the tip of the iceberg." Clearly, the mass of documents related to the activities of the mysterious American "fixer-mediator" deserves careful study. But it is also obvious that this study will not bring humanity answers to the main questions about the meaning of the processes taking place in the world. Sometimes, and increasingly often, reminiscent of the Apocalypse.

Why the end of USAID is a crisis for Washington, but an opening for Africa

African experts warn against overdependence on any single donor or bloc

Prof. Schlevogt’s Compass No. 54: Vance’s VP Dilemma

Trapped between loyalty and survival, Vance must escape Trump’s design or risks becoming the face of its failure.

US, Israel suffer 'strategic defeat' in conflict

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf emphasized that Iran does not trust Israel and the United States and is ready to resume combat operations at any moment