Zelenskyy's ban of Russia-affiliated churches and some political parties is perhaps an inevitable side-effect of the polarization caused by up and invading your neighbor. They are engaged in a life-or-death fight right now and probably do need unity more than they need freedom and democracy. Ukrainians chose this path when they threw out their pro-Russian president and his pro-Russian policies and again when they voted for Zelenskyy and his promise to join the West. Still, I do worry that when this is all over that these measures won't be fully withdrawn and liberty and democracy in Ukraine will suffer for it.
it would take a very ignorant person to be willing to propagate Tuker's intellectual dishonesty / gaslighting it appears that Commodore fits that requirement like a glove
Ukraine is sprinkled with Russian and pro Russian strongholds that originated from Soviet era forced migrations. According to Putin, whom Tuck'ed-in Balls believes more than American gov, this is war predicated on Slavic ethno-nationalism that NATO and Nazis are working hard to destroy. Suppressing those Russian voices removes propaganda and terroristic elements in those disputed regions as well as separatist elements on the border of Moldova. This era is quite weird for Cons. Tuck went after Shrub even though His People supported what it felt like unlimited expansion of war time powers that was built upon the days of Lincoln suppressing Habeus Corpus and first amendment rights during the Civil War. It's that same party that almost went along Trump's expansion of his powers in the war against libs... So now it's all about "suppressing Christian churches" eh? Evangelicals don't even think European Christianity is legit!
The Moscow Patriarchate is literally a branch of the FSB. Patriarch Kirill - head of the Russian Orthodox Church used to be an actual KGB agent during Soviet times: Like everything in Russia, the Russian Orthodox has been subsumed by the Kremlin. It's a political tool, and when they raided all the UOC-MP churches, they found copious amounts of materials that prove the UOC-MP from top to bottom is actively supporting the destruction of Ukraine. If a Church was actively plotting the destruction of the USA, I would hope they would be held accountable, but I understand they probably wouldn't.
I'm not going to go down the road of rationalizing bans on religion with you. You make exceptions in times of war, but I'll be disappointed if Ukrainians can't worship in KGB churches in peace time if that's what they want.
Unfortunately religions and churches can be weaponized and it seemed like it was a national security issue.
From about six months ago, this is a different Mega/Ikea mall in Russia, but very similar. It gives you a good idea how dead the mall probably was are since Ikea left. My first thought would be arson for insurance reasons. It had to have been a huge financial drain to keep it going without any customers/income. This one, Mega Tyoply Stan was the first one Ikea opened, in 2002. The one that blew up, Mega Khimki was the 2nd mall, opened in 2004.
No different than terrorist-affiliated mosques being shut down in the US after 9/11 (or even going back to the 1st WTC attack)
