{"id":1141,"date":"2016-02-20T10:25:37","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T15:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/mysticpost\/?p=1141"},"modified":"2016-02-25T11:06:22","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T16:06:22","slug":"russia-the-elephant-in-the-room-presidential-candidates-and-media-wont-talk-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mysticpost\/2016\/02\/20\/russia-the-elephant-in-the-room-presidential-candidates-and-media-wont-talk-about\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia on the World Stage – Presidential Candidates and Media at a Loss to Explain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Image source http:\/\/gdb.rferl.org\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

By Stephen Ryan Author of The Madonna Files\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

About Russia \u2013 \u201cNever before in modern times has such a dire international situation been so ignored in an American presidential campaign.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have been following the surprising rise of Russia onto the world stage for a number of years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I became interested in that country after reading about the rise of Christianity in Russia and\u00a0\u00a0Vladimir Putin\u2019s \u00a0and \u00a0Dimitry Medvedev\u2019s strong Christian convictions. The\u00a0influential role the Russia Orthodox Church had attained in matters of \u00a0State in the once former atheist Soviet Union also came as a complete surprise to me. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Putin and Medvedev took political risks to become Russian Orthodox Christians. Putin\u2019s mother had her son secretly baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church \u2013 Putin\u2019s father was a staunch member of the Soviet Union\u2019s Communist party. Medvedev, at 23 years of age, risked destroying a promising legal career when he chose to be baptized.<\/p>\n

The more I read the more I began to see that the Russia I was encountering was far different from the common narrative espoused by the mainstream media and foreign policy experts. The common view of Russia was that it was a country led by a simmering collection of lawless oligarchs, \u201cthugs\u201d, \u00a0KGB agents, and communists pretending to be Western styled capitalist. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Winston Churchill once described Russia as \u201ca riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside of an enigma.\u201d It seemed to me that leading pundits in the United States \u00a0ignore Churchill\u2019s definition and stand by their\u00a0views of Russia that have not evolved beyond what they learned in their 6th grade history class.<\/p>\n

According to the so-called experts, Russia was many things, \u00a0but what Russia was not, was a God fearing nation with an unusual devotion to \u201cTheotokos\u201d- \u00a0the Mother of God. We in the United States call the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary.<\/p>\n

The Russian Orthodox Church, coming out of the shadows of the former communist state, and Vladimir Putin\u2019s Christian beliefs were suddenly not just interesting anecdotes of today\u2019s Russian culture, but to me they helped explain the dramatic geopolitical events \u2013 events unforeseen by all the experts \u2013 particularly Russia\u2019s bold military efforts in Syria.<\/p>\n

The Russian Orthodox Church calls Russia\u2019s move into Syria a \u201cHoly War\u201d. I have begun to ask myself \u201cWhy not call it a Holy War\u201d \u2013 the description seemed to define activities in the Middle East quite succinctly and more accurately than the \u201cexpert analysis\u201d coming from talking heads on CNN and Fox News.<\/p>\n

Military analysts call Syrian leader Assad a \u201cbarrel bombing brutal dictator\u201d. He may be all these things, but he also has a long record of treating Christians in Syria fairly. Christian Post writes:<\/p>\n

\n
The reason many Christians in Syria support Assad is because he has vowed to protect them from ISIS and other jihadists. By Middle Eastern standards, the Assad regime, including his father\u2019s tenure as president, have treated Christians fairly.
\nRead more at http:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/syrian-president-bashar-al-assad-five-things-to-know-150732\/#KSERJRWgpThATIPw.99<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Last fall Vladimir Putin, speaking at the UN, gave a now famous speech where he rhetorically asked the Western nations who had supported regime change in Iraq, Libya, and Sryia: \u201cDo you realize what you have done?\u201d<\/p>\n

The fallout of Western pursuit of regime change in Syria, Libya and Iraq, all \u00a0ruined states, has become an unimaginable horror. \u00a0ISIS, al Queda, and CIA backed mercenaries have shockingly reminded the world that evil is still a part of the human condition and that genocide is not a relic of the past. There have been many articles written about genocide against Christians in Iraq (mission accomplished) \u00a0and Syria.<\/p>\n

Christian genocide, epic human tragedy in Syria, an aggressive Russia, migrants descending onto Europe literally changing the face of a continent, these are gigantic, historical events, yet the apocalyptic \u00a0drama is rarely discussed by US media and is rarely\u00a0a topic of the presidential debate.<\/p>\n

Listening to the presidential debates, one could conclude that building a wall along the Mexican border is the answer to most of the United States\u2019 complex foreign policy issues.<\/p>\n

I truly do not understand this inexplicable phenomena. Thankfully, the subject of the mainstream media\u2019s curiously mute interest in these big events is starting to catch the attention of some influential news magazines.<\/p>\n

Last week,\u00a0<\/span>Stephen F. Cohen, contributing editor of\u00a0The Nation ,\u00a0<\/em>professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University\u00a0and\u00a0Princeton\u00a0University posted an articled for Nation Magazine titled : \u201cThe Obama Administration Recklessly Escalates Confrontation With Russia\u201d:<\/p>\n

Is his article Mr. Cohen, speaking of the tensions between the United States and Russia writes:<\/p>\n

Astonishingly, these potentially fateful developments have barely been reported in the US media, and there\u2019s been no public discussion, not even by the current presidential candidates during their debates.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span>Never before in modern times has such a dire international situation been so ignored in an American presidential campaign.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I could not agree more.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Ryan Author of The Madonna Files\u00a0 About Russia \u2013 \u201cNever before in modern times has such a dire international situation been so ignored in an American presidential campaign.\u201d I have been following the surprising rise of Russia onto the world stage for a number of years.\u00a0 I became interested in that country after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2537,"featured_media":1162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia"],"yoast_head":"\nRussia on the World Stage - Presidential Candidates and Media at a Loss to Explain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Stephen Ryan Author of The Madonna Files\u00a0 About Russia - "Never before in modern times has such a dire international situation been so ignored in an\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mysticpost\/2016\/02\/20\/russia-the-elephant-in-the-room-presidential-candidates-and-media-wont-talk-about\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russia on the World Stage - 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