Father Daniel Sysoyev, a prominent Russian missionary, recently urged the opening of an Orthodox "base" in Kyrgyzstan from which to launch a proselytizing "offensive" across mostly Muslim Central Asia. Speaking at a forum in Moscow on February 17, Sysoyev said the church should open theological faculties in Bishkek universities and "use Kyrgyzstan as a base for all of Central Asia, Afghanistan, Tibet, and China." Central Asia, he said, could prove fertile ground. After all, since 1992, a half-million Central Asians have become Protestant converts. And Catholic missionaries, the priest added, successfully set up a Kyrgyz diocese in just a few years...

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) is pleased to learn that the Government of Canada, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), will be continuing to play an active role in facilitating the evolution of Ukraine's young democracy. Significantly, Ukraine is the only former Soviet republic and the only European state included among the 20 countries that Canada has targeted for its aid initiatives...

“We should work so that Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan do not become victims of US-Russia dialogue. If we sacrifice these republics, Russia’s integration into the world will slow. We should do everything to defend these countries,” Zbigniew Brzezinski, former US National Security Adviser under Jimmy Carter, said, APA reports quoting Georgian media. Zbigniew Brzezinski, who is foreign policy adviser of the new administration, considers that the United States should strengthen cooperation with Europe...

It has become fashionable in the wake of the global economic crisis to portray Ukraine as the next Iceland, slipping into financial default, or as a failed state. While the country is waist-deep in economic woes, some of the risks are grossly exaggerated due to the mudslinging between President Victor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Some experts wonder if Yushchenko is deliberately trying to make a bad situation worse...

Tensions between Russia and Ukraine rose after Kiev warned Moscow it may expel Russian Ambassador Viktor Chernomyrdin for making rude and undiplomatic comments in a recent newspaper interview. The Foreign Ministry summoned Chernomyrdin in Kiev on Tuesday warning the diplomat that he may be expelled if he continues to make rude comments about Ukraine and its leadership. The Russian Embassy on Wednesday called the warning an “unfriendly” move that may harm relations between Ukraine and Russia. A source in the Russian Foreign Ministry said Russia would take similar action if Ukraine goes ahead with the threat...

I wish to compliment Joshua Kucera on his effort to give an objective picture of the situation in Crimea in the context of Ukrainian-Russian relations ("Status of Crimea hangs over Russia, Ukraine," World, Feb. 9). However, a few points have to be clarified. The fact that Crimea is part of Ukraine is no bigger a "historical quirk" than that California...

For the Western world, 1929 marked the start of the Great Depression. For the Soviet Union, it was a year that Joseph Stalin called the “Great Break”—the ending of a short spell of semiprivate economic policy and the beginning of the deadly period of forced collectivization and industrialization. Often mistranslated as the “Great Leap Forward,” “Great Break” is truer to Stalin’s intentions and much more befitting their tragic consequences. The events he set in motion 80 years ago broke millions of lives and changed human values and instincts in Russia. It was, arguably, the most consequential year in Russia’s 20th-century history...

Head of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London, consultant to NATO on Ukraine, James SHERR is well known both in Ukraine and in the expert circles worldwide. Hopefully, the Ukrainian parliament, government, and their advisors will pay enough attention to the opinion of the British expert. [The Day] Mr.Sherr, considering latest event: USA intention to push reset button on relation with Russia, Sarkozy’s and Merkel’s statements in Munich...

For those of us who lived under the Soviet Union, there is a certain irony about energy supplies. We may have been in a Cold War with the West, but Soviet gas always flowed uninterrupted across the Iron Curtain. Nowadays, thankfully, the Soviet Union is no more -- and yet Russian gas has become a strategic weapon. Those of us who are net importers cannot help but wonder: Is Moscow saying that gas supplies will be a problem unless it can have its sphere of influence once again? So long as those countries which rely on Russian gas...