A grandiose mosaic depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and other high-ranking officials is not to be put on display in a new military church after objections from the Kremlin leader, a church official said on Friday.
Russia is building a massive cathedral dedicated to its armed forces just west of Moscow. It had been scheduled to open its doors this month to mark 75 years since the Soviet victory in World War II, but its inauguration is likely to be postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A picture of the mosaic, which shows Putin alongside Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and other top officials showing support for Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from the Ukraine, was first published by the MBKh news Web site last week.
Photo: AFP / Russian Ministry of Defense
Another mosaic panel photographed separately showed a group of women gathered in front of a sign that reads: “Crimea is ours.”
The cathedral’s arts committee had decided not to put the mosaic on display in line with the “wishes of the head of state,” archpriest Bishop Stefan told Interfax news agency in an interview on Friday, without providing details.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov last week said that Putin was aware of the mosaic, but that the Russian president thought it was too early to celebrate the accomplishments of the country’s existing leadership.
The Crimean Peninsula’s annexation propelled Russia’s relations with Western countries to a post-Cold War low and saw a string of governments impose economic sanctions on Moscow.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying
Ukrainian drone attacks overnight on several Russian power and energy facilities forced capacity reduction at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and set a fuel export terminal in Ust-Luga on fire, Russian officials said yesterday. A drone attack on the Kursk nuclear plant, not far from the border with Ukraine, damaged an auxiliary transformer and led to 50 percent reduction in the operating capacity at unit three of the plant, the plant’s press service said. There were no injuries and a fire sparked by the attack was promptly extinguished, the plant said. Radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding
‘DELIBERATE PROVOCATION’: Pyongyang said that Seoul had used a machine gun to fire at North Korean troops who were working to permanently seal the southern border South Korea fired warning shots at North Korean soldiers that briefly crossed the heavily fortified border earlier this week, Seoul said yesterday after Pyongyang accused it of risking “uncontrollable” tensions. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has sought warmer ties with the nuclear-armed North and vowed to build “military trust,” but Pyongyang has said it has no interest in improving relations with Seoul. Seoul’s military said several North Korean soldiers crossed the border on Tuesday while working in the heavily mined demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. The incursion prompted “our military to fire warning shots,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff
RSS