Kirill

The Russian Patriarch Kirill published condolences on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church yesterday evening regarding the passing of the Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte.

On Friday, the Russian Church in Sofia will be reopened, Nova TV reported. The first service is expected to be on Saturday. The temple was closed after Bulgaria recalled three Russian priests for violating diplomatic rules.

"If we differ on the most existential of issues, it will be hard to cooperate on other fronts," summarises Andrzej Sadecki, head of the Central Europe team and a Hungary specialist at OSW, the Warsaw-based Center for Eastern Studies.

The spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians said on Wednesday that Russia's powerful Orthodox Church shared responsibility for the conflict in Ukraine but that he stood ready to help in Russia's postwar "spiritual regeneration".

March 2023 marks the 80th anniversary of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews in the old borders of the Kingdom of Bulgaria from the Nazi death camps. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Exarch Stefan, Patriarch Kirill, public figures, individual politicians such as Dimitar Peshev, the protests of our civil society had an active role in it.

The head of Cyprus' Orthodox Church Archbishop Georgios formally assumed his new duties Sunday following an enthronement ceremony evoking the splendor of centuries of Byzantine tradition before an audience of clergy from around the world with the notable exception of the Russian church.

The impact of Russian President Vladimir Putin's order for his forces in Ukraine to observe a unilateral, 36-hour cease-fire was in doubt on Jan. 6 after Kyiv officials dismissed the move as a ploy but didn't clarify whether Ukrainian troops would follow suit.

Moscow also didn't say whether it would hit back if Ukraine kept fighting.

Russia will announce a unilateral ceasefire for 36 hours starting tomorrow at 12 noon local time.

This was reported by the "Interfax" agency, citing a Kremlin statement.

The cessation of hostilities on the Russian side will be lifted at midnight on January 7-8.

As he said, overall world circumstances have changed in the last ten years.
"We are all witnessing a very tense atmosphere and mistrust between countries, and this tension is growing and threatens to turn into a large-scale war. Relations have gone backwards, given that they have deteriorated so much," said Patriarch Kirill, reports Sputnik.

The leader of GERB and ex-Prime Minister, Boyko Borissov, accused former PM Kiril Petkov and former deputy PM Asen Vassilev of deliberate actions and sabotaging the supplies of American liquefied gas in Bulgaria.

According to Borissov, Petkov's office did not sign the contract and did not reserve a delivery point for unloading the tankers.