The Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014. Its new rules for religious organizations are similar to Russian religious policies.

The new regulations say only "traditional" religions, including Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are allowed on the Council. Read more

Failure to meet the March 1 deadline could mean liquidation for the Church, said Ukraine's Religious Freedom Institute in a statement.

The requirement to re-register was designed to force clergy and church members to accept Russian citizenship and to ensure "complete subordination" to Russian law, the statement continued.

It added that the denial of legal status would immediately affect the property rights of religious minorities, curtailing their capacity to recruit foreign priests, open bank accounts and publish and distribute literature, as well as to engage in charity work and conduct rites in hospitals, orphanages and prisons.

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The same may be said of the planet as a whole.

Whether intellectually or intuitively, many are asking the same question: Where are we heading?

How do we explain the long list of financial, environmental and humanitarian emergencies, epidemics, small and larger conflicts, genocides, war crimes, terrorist attacks and military interventions?

Why does the international community seem powerless to prevent any of this?

There is no simple or single answer to this conundrum, but two factors can shed much light.

The first involves a global power shift and the prospect of a new Cold War.

The second relates to globalisation and the crises generated by the sheer scale of cross-border flows.

Is a new Cold War in the making?

The geopolitical shift has resulted in a dangerous souring of America's relations with Russia and China.

The dispute over Ukraine is the latest chapter in the rapidly deteriorating relationship between Washington and Moscow.

In what is essentially a civil war in which over 3,000 people have been killed, the two great powers have chosen to support opposing sides in the conflict by all means short of outright intervention.

The incorporation of Crimea into Russia, Moscow's decision to use force in Georgia in 2008 and its support for the independence of the two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are part of the same dynamic.

The conduct of Russian governments in the Putin era has been at times coercive and often clumsy at home and abroad.

But the United States has also much to answer for. For the last 25 years its foreign policy has been unashamedly triumphalist.

In his 1992 State of the Union address, President George Bush senior declared: "By the grace of God, America won the Cold War". Continue reading

Source

• Joseph Camilleri in The Conversation

Joseph Camilleri OAM was the founding Director of the Centre for Dialogue, La Trobe University.

Crimea was once an independent Tatar khanate, captured by Russia in the 18th century.

The Tatars were deported by Stalin as punishment for alleged collaboration with the Nazis — although some fought on either side in World War II.

In 1954, Nikita Khruschev (then Soviet leader), gifted the territory to Ukraine.

The decision was of no practical consequence at the time since both Russia and Ukraine were simply states within the USSR. There was, however, no public (or even parliamentary) consultation.

In the Gorbachev era, many Tatars returned. They now form about 12 per cent of the population (about 60 per cent are Russian, the remainder Ukrainians, Bulgarians etc.).

Strategically, Crimea is important for its natural resources and its ice-free, deepwater port of Sevastopol, a major base of Russia's powerful Black Sea Fleet.

The international law claims are as complex as the history. Continue reading.

Justin Glyn SJ is a student of philosophy and theology in Melbourne who holds a PhD in international and administrative law.

Source: Eureka Street

Image: ShutterStock

Sources in Ukraine say Father Mykola Kvych, a pastor and a Ukrainian military chaplain, was abducted by pro-Russian forces after celebrating the liturgy.

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But this is not the first time the region has been so critical to international affairs.

Many educated people have at least heard of the great struggle known as the Crimean War (1853-56), although its causes and events remain mysterious to most non-specialists.

If the conflict is remembered today, it resonates through the heroic charitable efforts of Florence Nightingale and the foundation of modern nursing.

Actually, that earlier war deserves to be far better known as a pivotal moment in European religious affairs.

Without knowing that religious element, moreover—without a sense of its Christian background—we will miss major themes in modern global affairs, in the Middle East and beyond. Continue reading.

Source: Christianity Today

Image: Officers of the 42nd Highlanders regiment, known as the 'Black Watch', during the Crimean War. Roger Fenton/Getty Image