Moscow got a real shock this month: after the voting, which was marred by deliberate ballot-stuffing on the part of Mr. Putin’s party, tens of thousands of people took to the streets. After twenty years of economic hardship and a slow but steady erosion of civil liberties, the people have said “Enough.” Shocked at the blatant interference with the election process, they realize that had such interference not taken place, Putin-Medvedev would have suffered even more serious losses in the Russian parliament. And they have taken to the streets, in such numbers that the Moscow police department did not strike back for the first time.
Radio Free Europe (yes, it does still exist as there is still a need for accurate reporting in the East of Europe and all of Russia) has an excellent brief overview here: http://www.rferl.org/content/the_other_russia/24419873.html
An article on Facebook and its impact is here: http://www.rferl.org/content/after_mass_protests_is_the_kremlin_using_facebook_to_ease_the_pressure/24419436.html
It includes many links that you can click on while reading the article. Russia is extremely important in the world – if its slide into dictatorship stops, there will be a ripple effect in the critical central Asian republics and “Europe’s last dictatorship” in Belarus. And thousands of Russians will be able to hold their heads high and hope for improvements at home – improvements which could save their dying country and stabilize it at long last.
The Mother of God with the Prophets who predicted the the Messiah
From the Divine Office:
O Virgin Mother, you conceived the Son of God without seed by the will of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit. He was begotten by the father, without a mother, from all eternity. Yet for our sake, He was born of you in the flesh without a human father, and you nursed Him as an infant with your milk. Never cease to entreat Him to deliver our souls from affliction.
Father Christopher Zugger 
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