No Nirvana In Night Nation
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Because of my prostate cancer limits me to how much time I can sit before my computer, what I do is post a study page that I look at while in my easy chair with my cell phone.
John Presco
Trump Attacks Sessions, Accuses Ukraine Of ‘Sabotage’
July 25, 2017 15:07 CET
- By RFE/RL
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U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions, calling his former ally “very weak” in investigating intelligence leaks and for failing to probe former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Meanwhile, the Reuters news agency has reported that Trump has spoken privately to his political allies in recent days about the potential consequences of firing Sessions.
But at a press conference on July 25, when asked about Sessions’ future as attorney general, Trump avoided saying whether Sessions would be fired — saying instead that “time will tell.”
Trump’s anger over Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the government’s investigation of Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election became public on July 24 when Trump referred to the attorney general in a tweet as “beleaguered.”
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Trump: ‘I Am Disappointed In The Attorney General’
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Last week, Trump said he never would have appointed Sessions to be attorney general — the chief U.S. prosecutor — if he had known that Sessions would recuse himself.
“Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails &DNC server) & Intel leakers!” Trump tweeted on July 25.
His remarks came after the Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, reported that Trump and his advisers have discussed replacing Sessions.
Trump also called on Sessions to investigate Clinton’s use of a private server to send e-mails when she was secretary of state.
Trump’s tweets, and mounting pressure on Sessions, have fueled speculation in Washington that the attorney general may resign even if Trump doesn’t fire him.
But several people close to Sessions have said he does not plan to quit.
Fiery Response
Meanwhile, Trump’s criticism of Sessions has drawn a fiery response from some Republican lawmakers — suggesting that not all Republicans will support a presidential effort to oust the attorney general.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said on July 25 that “Trump’s tweet today suggesting Attorney General Sessions pursue prosecution of a former political rival is highly inappropriate.”
“Prosecutorial decisions should be based on applying facts to the law without hint of political motivation,” Graham said. “To do otherwise is to run away from the long-standing American tradition of separating the law from politics regardless of party.”
Trump’s tweets on July 25 also accused Ukraine of trying to “sabotage” his campaign, without offering any evidence.
Ukraine’s embassy in Washington denied Trump’s allegations with a tweet of its own saying, “We stand by our words that the government of Ukraine didn’t help any candidate” in the U.S. presidential election.
The Ukrainian embassy also said “Ukraine is proud of bipartisan support” in the United States.
Ukraine’s permanent representative to the Council of Europe, Dmytro Kuleba, also responded on Twitter to Trump’s allegations.
“Trump writes that we interfered in the elections in the USA, while Putin says that we threaten Russia,” Kuleba said. “There was a time when we were peaceful buckwheat sowers who kept themselves to themselves.”
Scoop: White House believes Europe secretly undoing Ukraine war’s end
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Senior White House officials believe some European leaders are publicly supporting President Trump’s effort to end the war in Ukraine, while quietly trying to undo behind-the-scenes progress since the Alaska summit, Axios has learned.
- The White House has asked the Treasury Department to compile a list of sanctions that could plausibly be imposed by Europe against Russia.
Why it matters: Two weeks after the summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, there has been little clear progress toward ending the war. Frustrated Trump aides contend the blame should fall on European allies, not on Trump or even Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Behind the scenes: White House officials are losing patience with European leaders, whom they claim are pushing Ukraine to hold out for unrealistic territorial concessions by Russia.
- Axios has learned that the sanctions the U.S. is urging Europe to adopt against Russia include a complete cessation of all oil and gas purchases — plus secondary tariffs from the EU on India and China, similar to those already imposed on India by the U.S.
- “The Europeans don’t get to prolong this war and backdoor unreasonable expectations, while also expecting America to bear the cost,” a top White House official told Axios. “If Europe wants to escalate this war, that will be up to them. But they will be hopelessly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”
What they’re thinking: The Europeans are said to be pushing Zelensky to hold out for a “better deal” — a maximalist approach that has exacerbated the war, Trump’s inner circle argues.
- The U.S. officials believe British and French officials are being more constructive. But they complain that other major European countries want the U.S. to bear the full cost of the war, while putting no skin in the game themselves.
- “Getting to a deal is an art of the possible,” the top official said. “But some of the Europeans continue to operate in a fairy-tale land that ignores the fact it takes two to tango.”
The big picture: After his summits with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump repeatedly said the next step must be a Putin-Zelensky summit. So far, the Russians have refused.
- At the same time, the Ukrainians have rejected any discussion on possible territorial concessions unless the Russians come to the table.
- Trump was visibly frustrated about the situation during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. “Everybody is posturing. It’s all bullshit,” he said.
- Russia’s massive air strikes on Kyiv, plus Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries, further signaled that peace wasn’t getting any closer.
What they’re saying: “Perhaps both sides of this war are not ready to end it themselves. The president wants it to end, but the leaders of these two countries need it to end and must want it to end as well,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.
With God in Russia is a memoir by Walter Ciszek (1904–1984), a Polish-American Jesuit priest known for his clandestine missionary work in the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1963. It was originally published in 1964 by McGraw-Hill.
| Author | Walter Ciszek |
|---|---|
| Genre | Memoir |
| Publisher | McGraw-Hill |
| Publication date | 1964 |
Since 1990, the life of Fr. Ciszek has been considered by the Roman Catholic Church for possible beatification or canonization. His current title is a Servant of God.[1]
Overview
The book begins in 1938 as Father Ciszek, who has been ordained in the Byzantine Rite, serves in a mission in a part of Poland occupied by the Soviets. He volunteers to go incognito, using the alias “Wladimir Lypinski”, as a worker with Polish laborers and families enticed into Russia’s interior to work in the Ural Mountains. On the way he stops in Lviv, Ukraine and gets permission for his new mission from the elderly Andrey Sheptytsky, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
In 1940 he reaches his destination, a lumber camp near Chusovoy, Perm Krai, Russia. After the onset of World War II, however, the secret police (NKVD) identify Ciszek as a priest and arrest him under a charge of “agitation with intent to subvert”.
For the next five years Ciszek is confined to Moscow prisons, including the notorious Lubyanka, and then, without trial, is sentenced to ten more years as “a spy of the Vatican“. He is then sent to labor camps north of the Arctic Circle in Dudinka and Norilsk, where he works in the mines and in construction gangs. He also takes part in Norilsk uprising in 1953.
Long presumed dead by his family and his superiors in the United States, in October 1963 Father Ciszek is exchanged along with another American for two convicted Soviet secret agents.
Jeff Sessions and the Russia connection: what happened and why does it matter?
This article is more than 8 years old
The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, has called for the US attorney general to resign over his links to Russia. Will he?
Stephanie KirchgaessnerThu 2 Mar 2017 07.46 ESTShare
What happened?
It has been revealed by the Washington Post that Jeff Sessions, the US attorney general, met Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak on two occasions last year. The first meeting occurred when Kislyak was one of a group of ambassadors to approach Sessions as he was leaving the podium at an event at the Republican National Convention in July. The second incident – in September – was a private meeting held in the then-senator’s office. That meeting took place as US intelligence officials were investigating Russian interference in the presidential election.
Sessions did not disclose the conversations when asked under oath during his Senate confirmation hearing in early 2017 about possible contacts between Trump’s campaign and Moscow.
Why is this important?
The report raises the question of whether Sessions, the nation’s top law enforcement official and a key member of the Trump administration, lied under oath during his confirmation hearing.
Intense pressure over the revelations has led him to recuse himself from the FBI’s ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russia, amid accusations that he would face a conflict of interest, and has strengthened calls for a special and fully independent prosecutor to take over the investigation.
The FBI director, Jim Comey, is leading the inquiry, and had been reporting to Sessions, who would have had the power to influence the depth of the investigation and decide on whether criminal charges were ultimately brought against any individuals.
In a wider sense, the development reopens the debate about Russia’s alleged influence over and contacts with Trump officials, just as Trump was basking in the praise of political allies and some pundits for his first address to Congress. Less than a month ago, Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, was fired when it emerged that he had misled the vice-president, Mike Pence, about conversations he had had with Kislyak.
Could these meetings have been entirely appropriate?
Yes. Sessions was a senior member of the Senate armed services committee and his spokeswoman has said that, in that capacity, he had more than 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors. But the Washington Post asked all 26 members of the Senate armed services committee at that time whether they, too, had met with Kislyak. Of the 20 senators who responded, each said they had not had any such meeting.
Did Sessions lie under oath?
Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, is in no doubt. “After lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the attorney general must resign,” she said.
But unnamed White House officials cited by the Washington Post say Sessions did not consider his conversations with Kislyak to be relevant to the questions posed to him in his confirmation hearing and that he did not remember the nature of his discussions with the ambassador.
As part of his confirmation, Sessions was also asked in written form whether he had had any contact with “any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election”, to which he answered: “No.” If Sessions and Kislyak did not discuss the election, that answer would be truthful.
Has Sessions been suspected of having Russia ties before?
Not really. Several other Trump campaign and administration officials have had contacts with Russia, which you can read about here. But Sessions was a controversial appointment because of vehemently denied accusations of racism, not due to any alleged ties to Russia.
Who is Sergey Kislyak?
The Russian ambassador has been paid a lot of attention by US intelligence and FBI officials. According to his official biography, Kislyak has served in the Russian foreign ministry for four decades. He also served as ambassador to Belgium, permanent representative of Russia to Nato, and as deputy foreign minister. He is considered by US intelligence sources to be a top Russian spy-recruiter in Washington, according to CNN, which cited unnamed US officials.
What happens now?
There are at least three known investigations into the Trump officials’ alleged ties and communication with Russia. They are being led by the FBI and the two congressional intelligence committees. Now that Sessions has stepped back from involvement in the FBI investigation, it will probably give the FBI director, James Comey, more freedom to pursue the investigation without the interference or involvement of Sessions, a Trump appointee. It also means that Comey will probably have more freedom to determine what information to release publicly and whether to bring charges against any individual.
What do we know about Donald Trump and Russia? Guardian
Sept. 8, 2016: Sessions meets with ambassador Kislyak in Sessions’ office in Washington.
A DOJ official emphasized to ABC News that this meeting with the Russian ambassador was listed publicly and attended by staff.
Senator Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., becomes the first Senator to endorse Donald Trump for President of the United States at Madison City Stadium, Feb. 28, 2016, in Madison, Ala.Taylor Hill/WireImage/Getty Images
“In 1993, I went on a church trip to Russia and spent a week there. Our group went to a small city of 40,000 people that is located [five] hours east of Moscow in an area where very few Americans were allowed in over the years because it was a security area in the Soviet Union.
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Did you know Jeff Sessions made several trips to Russia with his Methodist Church group? Did you know Sessions father and grandfather were named after Jefferson Davis THE GREATEST TRAITOR the U.S.A. ever knew? Why wasnt he hung by the nek – until he was dead!
At 3:36 P.M. on March 5, 2025, I found The Key, the Lynchpin to the Russiagate. Putin and some Methodist leaders are restoring the Mehodist Church in Russia – that was blown up by Stalin. I suspect Jeff Sessions was chosen for this covert mission. I suspect the recuasl and firing of Sessions as attrony general – was part of the coverup unless he be GRIILED DEEPER!
On this day, I found a religious tribunal that will DRILL BABY DRILL until we get to the truth. I m renaming my church….The Radio Church of London! I am bringing together Herbert Armstrong and my 9th. Grandfather, John Wilson, two religious leaders, thus this is not a Secular Investigation, and, is sanctioned by the Constitution. Senator Joseph McCarthy conducted a Witch-hunt that was broadcast on the radio. I am going to set up a podcast. Study this post/ Together we will uncover the trith.
John Presco
‘Prophet of the Radio Church of London’
Russia’s ambassador to Washington told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race, contrary to public assertions by the embattled attorney general, according to current and former U.S. officials.
Sign up for Fact Checker, our weekly review of what’s true, false or in-between in politics.
Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s accounts of two conversations with Sessions — then a top foreign policy adviser to Republican candidate Donald Trump — were intercepted by U.S. spy agencies, which monitor the communications of senior Russian officials in the United States and in Russia. Sessions initially failed to disclose his contacts with Kislyak and then said that the meetings were not about the Trump campaign.
Sessions was born in Selma, Alabama, on December 24, 1946,[1] the son of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions Jr. and the former Abbie Powe.[2] Sessions, his father, and his grandfather were named after Jefferson Davis, a U.S. senator and president of the Confederate States of America,[3] and P. G. T. Beauregard, a veteran of the Mexican–American War and a Confederate general who oversaw the Battle of Fort Sumter that commenced the American Civil War.[4] His father owned a general store in Hybart, Alabama, and later owned a farm equipment dealership. Both Sessions’s parents were primarily of English descent, with some Scots-Irish ancestry.[5][6] In 1964, Sessions became an Eagle Scout, and later, he earned the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award for his many years of service.[7]
Rebuilding the Temple : Methodist Worship in Post-Soviet Russia
When I was living in Moscow as a student back in 1991, I regularly used to travel on the
trolleybus past a large open air swimming pool. In the late nineteenth century a huge church,
capable of accommodating 10,000 worshippers, was built on this site. In the 1930’s Stalin had it
blown up as part of his secularization campaign. The church was rebuilt over two years (from
1995-1997) and now the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ the Saviour dominates the
Moscow skyline once again.
The Methodist Church in Russia has a similar history. Methodism also had a visible
presence in Russia in the nineteenth century. In May 1889, Pastor Bengt August Carlson began
to travel from Finland to St. Petersburg every month to serve the Swedish population there. In
August, he started renting a preaching room in the city and by November of that year a small
Methodist congregation had been formed. This consisted of seven members, including one local
preacher who conducted worship when Pastor Carlson could not be there.
November 22, 2017
On a dark night at the tail end of last winter, just a month after the inauguration of the new American president, an evening when only a sickle moon hung in the Levantine sky, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 helicopters flew low across Jordan and then, staying under the radar, veered north toward the twisting ribbon of shadows that was the Euphrates River. On board, waiting with a professional stillness as they headed into the hostile heart of Syria, were Sayeret Matkal commandos, the Jewish state’s elite counterterrorism force, along with members of the technological unit of the Mossad, its foreign-espionage agency. Their target: an ISIS cell that was racing to get a deadly new weapon thought to have been devised by Ibrahim al-Asiri, the Saudi national who was al-Qaeda’s master bombmaker in Yemen.
It was a covert mission whose details were reconstructed for Vanity Fair by two experts on Israeli intelligence operations. It would lead to the unnerving discovery that ISIS terrorists were working on transforming laptop computers into bombs that could pass undetected through airport security. U.S. Homeland Security officials—quickly followed by British authorities—banned passengers traveling from an accusatory list of Muslim-majority countries from carrying laptops and other portable electronic devices larger than a cell phone on arriving planes. It would not be until four tense months later, as foreign airports began to comply with new, stringent American security directives, that the ban would be lifted on an airport-by-airport basis.
In the secretive corridors of the American espionage community, the Israeli mission was praised by knowledgeable officials as a casebook example of a valued ally’s hard-won field intelligence being put to good, arguably even lifesaving, use.
Yet this triumph would be overshadowed by an astonishing conversation in the Oval Office in May, when an intemperate President Trump revealed details about the classified mission to Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and Sergey I. Kislyak, then Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. Along with the tempest of far-reaching geopolitical consequences that raged as a result of the president’s disclosure, fresh blood was spilled in his long-running combative relationship with the nation’s clandestine services. Israel—as well as America’s other allies—would rethink its willingness to share raw intelligence, and pretty much the entire Free World was left shaking its collective head in bewilderment as it wondered, not for the first time, what was going on with Trump and Russia. (In fact, Trump’s disturbing choice to hand over highly sensitive intelligence to the Russians is now a focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s relationship with Russia, both before and after the election.) In the hand-wringing aftermath, the entire event became, as is so often the case with spy stories, a tale about trust and betrayal.
And yet, the Israelis cannot say they weren’t warned.
In the American-Israeli intelligence relationship, it is customary for the Mossad station chief and his operatives working under diplomatic cover out of the embassy in Washington to go to the C.I.A.’s Langley, Virginia, headquarters when a meeting is scheduled. This deferential protocol is based on a realistic appraisal of the situation: America is a superpower, and Israel, as one of the country’s senior intelligence officials recently conceded with self-effacing candor, is “a speck of dust in the wind.”
Nevertheless, over the years the Israeli dust has been sprinkled with flecks of pure intel gold. As Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman has pointed out, it was back in 1956, when the Cold War was running hot, that Israeli diplomats in Warsaw managed to get their hands on the text of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev’s top-secret speech to the Twentieth Party Congress in Moscow. Khrushchev’s startling words were a scathing indictment of Stalin’s three decades of oppressive rule, and signalled a huge shift in Soviet dogma—just the sort of invaluable intelligence the C.I.A. was eager to get its hands on. Recognizing the value of what they had, the Israelis quickly delivered the text to U.S. officials. And with this unexpected gift, a mutually beneficial relationship between the resourceful Jewish spies and the American intelligence Leviathan began to take root.
Jeff Sessions mentions Alabama church trip to Russia at press conference: Here’s what happened
- Published: Mar. 02, 2017, 11:01 p.m.
By
In denying any wrongdoing over meeting the Russian ambassador to the U.S. twice during the 2016 election, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said his conversations included a brief mention of visiting Russia on a mission trip in 1991.
Sessions, who is facing scrutiny amid revelations last night that he met with Sergey Kislyak on two occasions last year despite saying at his confirmation hearing that he had no contact with Russian officials, announced Thursday that he would be recusing himself from any potential or future investigations involving Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
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Asked at a press conference what he discussed with Kislyak, Sessions said, “It was just normal things, such as I started off … saying I had gone to Russia with a church group in 1991 – and he said he was not a believer himself, but he was glad to have church people come there. Indeed, I thought he was pretty much of an old style, Soviet-type ambassador.”
The anecdote wasn’t the first time Sessions has spoken publicly about his travels to Russia. The then-senator made at least two trips to Russia in the 1990s with his church, which was recorded in the congressional record, Independent Journal Review reported. At the time of the trips, Sessions was a federal prosecutor in Mobile.
Sessions spoke about the 1991 trip on the Senate floor in February 2014, when he paid tribute to Walter “Jimmie” Few of Mobile.
“I first got to know him when, in 1991, we took part in a mission to Russia as part of a United Methodist Church delegation. This was shortly after the fall of communism. We spent over a week in the small city of Vyksa, [five] hours east of Moscow. We roomed together in the home of a Russian family. This was the first chance the people of Vyksa had to actually meet and get to know Americans,” Sessions recalled. “Frequently, one of the Russians would, with surprise, say, ”You look just like us!” Jimmie was a very large man and naturally took charge. When an agreement was concluded, Jimmie would seal it with a firm–very firm–handshake. He loved the Russians. Indeed, after this he made some 19 more trips, assisting with orphanages, schools, and Bible schools as well as advising Russians on economic matters. Jimmie was a very experienced small businessman. He bought an orphanage a needed van on one occasion and fixed a road to the orphanage in another.”
Sessions also visited Russia in 1993, which he mentioned on the Senate floor five days after President Ronald Reagan’s death in 2004. He spoke of the trip to demonstrate Russians were grateful of Reagan.
“In 1993, several years after President Reagan left office, I had the opportunity to go with a church group to Russia. It was a Methodist group. We went and stayed in a town [five] hours from Moscow, about 40,000 people, many of whom had not seen Americans before. We had a very nice time there,” Sessions said. “I stayed for a number of days with a Russian family. The first day we got there, the Russian host’s daughter was to be baptized. Father Gannati was the Russian orthodox priest. He came and he did a nice service, and it took some time. Then we had dinner after the baptism. Father Gannati explained that just 2 years before, he was not able to wear his robes in public. The state caused him to be moved from town to town every year so that he could not build bonds and roots in a given community. He could not meet the governmental leaders. They would not meet with him because they were atheists and they would not meet with believers. So it was a very interesting time. He described how since then he could wear his robe, the mayor had him down to meet with him the day before this event, and that he was able to stay and rebuild the church there that had been damaged ever since the Russian revolution had occurred. At the conclusion of those remarks, our host jumped up and said: I propose a toast to Ronald Reagan, who allowed us to believe in God again. Right in the center of the evil empire, the impact Ronald Reagan had to change the nature of the world in which we lived was felt in a very real way.”
Sessions first told the story of that 1993 trip on the Senate floor in 1998.
“In 1993, I went on a church trip to Russia and spent a week there. Our group went to a small city of 40,000 people that is located [five] hours east of Moscow in an area where very few Americans were allowed in over the years because it was a security area in the Soviet Union. We went to the town of Sovetsk,” he said. “I was able to stay with another American in the home of a Russian businessman who was beginning to develop a business in Sovetsk. The first night we arrived they were going to celebrate the baptism of their daughter. A Russian Orthodox priest appeared in his great robes. The mother, father, and the grandparents had come in from the Ural Mountains, and it was a goodly group of people there. It was a marvelous ceremony as the priest performed that baptism.”
Sessions continued, “As we had dinner afterwards the priest told us that since perestroika, since the fall of the wall, he had baptized 18,000 people in that town of 40,000. He told us that before the wall fell he was not allowed to baptize people. He said he was not allowed to wear his robes, and that the Soviet Communist authorities moved him around 6 months or so at a time so that he could not really get to know his congregation and so he would be unable to build the kind of rapport that is necessary.”
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My Dad served in Congress for 30 years and he’d be appalled: op-edMar. 2, 2025, 12:00 a.m.
Sessions went on to say that the priest “discussed how he could now wear his robes, how he could now walk about town, how he could now meet with the mayor, and how he was now respected in the city in public affairs. For this priest and his congregation, it was now a great time. At the conclusion of that discussion, my host proposed a toast to Ronald Reagan ‘who made us believe in God again.’”
He continued, “Mr. President, I don’t know if they missed the translation. But the heart of that was very, very real. President Ronald Reagan helped shape this world. He helped free millions of people from a totalitarian state. He called the Soviet empire an ‘evil empire,’ and evil it was. Before we went to Russia, we spent time with a college professor who had spent 6 months there. He said, ‘I used to teach that the United States and Russia were just like scorpions in a bottle. There is no difference between us.’ Now, however, he says that after having been there and after having met with young Russian people he has changed his mind. In the words of that professor, ‘when I would talk in that fashion, the Russians looked at me like I was crazy. They said, ‘What are you talking about? You had all kinds of freedom. We had none. There was a great distinction between Russia, the Soviet Union, and the United States of America and the democracy that you have.’ Today that professor has come to believe that those young people had it right.”
Sessions said, “Ronald Reagan personified that. He personified the collapse of the totalitarian empire. He gave his life to it. He articulated it better than any man that ever lived. His was a Presidency both in terms of domestic policy and foreign policy that ranks among the highest order of American presidents.”
The Methodist Church in Russia–its History and Current Status
History of Our Involvement with Russian Initiative
History: The Russian Orthodox Church was the first Christian church in Russia, and enjoyed state church status under Russia’s czars. Before the Soviet Revolution, some Protestant churches operated in Russia, the Baptists and some Pentecostals being among the more important. Methodists had ministries in St. Petersburg and others cities in the late 1800’s. After the Revolution, religious activities in general were severely curtailed, but the Russian Orthodox Church sometimes enjoyed more favorable treatment than other Christians.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many other religious groups have tried to start up, and United Methodist Missions have had some success. The status of western groups is still not completely decided, and this makes it difficult to own property. But a building to house the Russia UM Seminary was purchased in 2000, and the building, a former day-care center, has been renovated from top to bottom, including adding a new third story.
The facility provides classroom space, space for the Episcopal office, the Superintendent of the Moscow District, space for one or more of the local churches, program committee rooms, and a conference room with kitchenette which can be used to provide hospitality for friends visiting from outside the country. It was planned that the building would be ready for occupancy in mid-2003, in time to welcome the next class of seminarians. Most of the renovation is now finished. For more on this, click here.
A decision on January 26 of 1999 resolved some legal problems of the Russian United Methodist Church, but sentiment in the country is strongly in favor of the Orthodox Church as being more Russian than more recent groups. Many of the congregations are struggling with the issue of facilities; many churches rent space but often find their rent raised overnight, because the landlords assume that `foreigners’ are standing behind the congregation, and bankrolling them. The decision of January 26, 1999 meant that the Russia UMC church was officially re-registered by the Russian Ministry of Justice. The registration recognizes the Russia Annual Conference and the 46 congregations as a “centralized” religious organization and allows the church to use the word “Russian” in its title. Only religious organizations that have existed in Russia for 15 years or more are granted full rights of public activities. Groups in existence for more than 50 years can use the word “Russian” in their titles. Fortunately Methodism existed before the Russian Revolution in 1917, and records of conflict with Tsarist authorities authenticate this and can be found in archives in St. Petersburg.
- For more on the General Board of Global Ministries and its support for the Russian Initiative, click here .
- For more information about the Theological Seminary, click here.
- For more on the history of the RUMC, click here.
Timeline leading up to Jeff Sessions’ recusal and the fallout
He vows to remain in his position “as long as that is appropriate.”
ByABC News
July 26, 2017, 2:11 PM
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Timeline leading up to Jeff Sessions’ recusal and the falloutHere’s a rundown of Sessions’ involvement with the Trump campaign, the timing of his meetings with the Russian ambassador and other instances where members of Trump’s inner circle were publicly questioned about their connections with Russian officials.
— — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ meetings with the Russian ambassador during the campaign continue to cause problems for him months after they were disclosed publicly.
Recent comments by President Donald Trump suggest that Sessions’ recusal created a strain between the two men, and although Trump made his feelings known in a candid interview, Sessions responded last week by saying that he intends to stay on at the Department of Justice.
This is far from the first time Sessions’ contact with the Russia ambassador while he was part of the 2016 campaign has affected his standing.
Here is a rundown of what is known about Sessions’ involvement with the Trump campaign, the timing of his meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States and several other key instances where members of Trump’s inner circle have been publicly questioned about their connections with Russian officials.
Feb. 28, 2016: Sessions becomes the first sitting U.S. senator to endorse Trump’s presidential bid.
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March 3, 2016: The Trump team named Sessions as the chairman of his National Security Advisory Committee. In the statement announcing the appointment, Trump said it is “an honor” to have Sessions on the team, and Sessions detailed how he could help.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to recommend and facilitate discussions among exceptional and experienced American military and diplomatic leaders to share insight and advice with Donald Trump, regardless of their political views,” Sessions said in that statement.
Mid-July, 2016, on the sidelines of the RNC: Sessions spoke at an event hosted by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, held during the Republican National Convention. After his speech, Sessions spoke to a small group of ambassadors after giving a speech and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak was among them.
A DOJ official told ABC News that this second interaction was a brief encounter after a public event attended by a number of ambassadors.
Aug. 19, 2016: Trump’s then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned following the hiring of new leadership and reports questioning Manafort’s ties to Russia. Ukrainian officials said that Manafort’s name appears in “black accounts” linked to the country’s former pro-Russian president.
Sept. 8, 2016: Sessions meets with ambassador Kislyak in Sessions’ office in Washington.
A DOJ official emphasized to ABC News that this meeting with the Russian ambassador was listed publicly and attended by staff.
Spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores released a statement noting that Sessions’ meeting with Kislyak was one of many that he held in his capacity as a member of the Armed Services Committee.
“Last year, the senator had over 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian, German and Russian ambassadors. He was asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign — not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed Services Committee,” Flores said.
The focus of the various meetings that Sessions had with the ambassadors would not be about the election, but sometimes the ambassadors would make superficial comments about the election, a DOJ official said.
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Nov. 8, 2016: Trump wins the election.
Nov. 18, 2016: Sessions announced as Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney general.
Jan. 10, 2017: At the Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, the topic of Russia came up when Sessions was questioned by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. Here is the relevant part of that exchange:
Franken: “If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?”
Sessions: “Senator Franken, I’m not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn’t have — did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.”
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Jan. 20, 2017: Trump is sworn in as president.
Feb. 9, 2017: Sessions is sworn in as attorney general.
Feb. 13, 2017: Then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is asked to resign after it becomes public that there were discrepancies in his account of his interactions with Russian officials during the transition. He previously told Vice President Mike Pence that he had not discussed sanctions with Ambassador Kislyak during their calls after the election — and Pence went on to say as much during televised interviews.
It was later revealed that the White House had been notified by the acting-attorney general that sanctions were discussed during the calls. Click here to see a full timeline of Flynn’s saga.
Feb. 15, 2017: Sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News that in the time leading up to the presidential election, U.S. authorities were looking into communications between several Trump associates and suspected Russian intelligence officials.
The New York Times first reported that according to several current and former U.S. officials, several Trump associates inside and outside the campaign — including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort — had repeated contact with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before election.
Manafort told ABC News on Feb. 15 that the report published in the Times is “completely ridiculous.”
“No, never, I never spoke to the Putin government and I never had any involvement with anything like this,” Manafort said.
“I have never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers, and I have never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government or the Putin administration or any other issues under investigation today,” Manafort said.
March 1, 2017: News breaks that Sessions met with the Russian ambassador twice in 2016, which appears to contradict his statement during his confirmation hearing.
A White House official responded to ABC News, dismissing the claims as an attempt to deflect from Trump’s “successful” address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Feb. 28.
“This is the latest attack against the Trump Administration by partisan Democrats. General Sessions met with the ambassador in an official capacity as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is entirely consistent with his testimony. It’s no surprise Senator Al Franken is pushing this story immediately following President Trump’s successful address to the nation,” the White House official said.
Democrats call for Sessions to resign. Among them is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who said that that Sessions “lied under oath.”
March 2, 2017: Sessions speaks briefly to NBC and makes quick remarks about the ongoing situation.
“I have not met with any Russians at any time to discuss any political campaign and those remarks are unbelievable to me and false and I don’t have anything else to say about that,” he said as he was seen getting into a car.
When asked whether he would recuse himself from being involved in the DOJ’s investigation into Russian involvement in the election, Sessions said, “I’ve said that whenever it’s appropriate I will recuse myself. There’s no doubt about that.”
In a statement released March 2, Sessions said he had met with “relevant senior career department officials” in the previous several weeks to discuss whether he should recuse himself and, “having concluded those meetings today, I have decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for president of the United States.”
Later that day, he held a news conference reiterating his decision.
He defended his earlier actions during the confirmation hearing, saying that his reply to Sen. Franken “was honest and correct as I understood it at the time.”
“In the end, I have followed the right procedure, just as I promised the committee I would,” Sessions said of the decision to recuse himself.
“A proper decision, I believe, has been reached,” he said.
June 6, 2017: ABC News learns that Sessions had recently offered to resign as Trump continued to express frustration with the attorney general’s decision to recuse himself from the election-tampering investigation.
During the day’s White House press briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer, in response to questioning on whether Trump has confidence in Sessions, said, “I have not had that discussion with [President Trump].”
June 13, 2017: Sessions testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and issued a sweeping denial of any personal involvement in Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
“I have never met with, or had any conversation with, any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States,” Sessions told the Senate Intelligence Committee. “Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign.”
The attorney general explained that he had met with “a senior ethics official” at the Justice Department in February as media reports emerged questioning his involvement in the investigation, given his role in Trump’s campaign. Sessions said from that moment, until the announcement of his recusal March 2, he “did not access any information about the investigation.”
“I have no knowledge about this investigation as it is ongoing today beyond what has been publicly reported,” said Sessions, who later explained that he never received a briefing or read the reports on the intelligence community’s conclusion that there were attempts to meddle in the election.
Sessions said the move to step away from oversight of the probe was not because of his actions or meetings with the Russian ambassador; instead, he pointed to his position as chairman of the Trump campaign’s national security committee.
“I recuse myself not because of any asserted wrongdoing or any belief that I may have been involved in any wrongdoing in the campaign, but because a Department of Justice regulation… required it,” Sessions said. “That regulation states in effect that department employees should not participate in investigations either came pain if they served as a campaign adviser.”
July 19, 2017: Trump had a sit-down interview with The New York Times, during which he launched into a blistering rebuke of Sessions and his decision to recuse himself from anything relating to presidential campaigns, including, most notably, the 2016 campaign.
“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else,” Trump said in the interview.
When asked whether Sessions gave the president a “heads up” before the recusal, Trump said: “Zero.”
“So Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself. I then have — which, frankly, I think is very unfair to the president. How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks, Jeff, but I can’t, you know, I’m not going to take you.’ It’s extremely unfair, and that’s a mild word, to the president. So he recuses himself. I then end up with a second man, who’s a deputy,” Trump said, referring to Rod Rosenstein.
July 20, 2017: Asked today for his reaction to Trump’s comments, Sessions maintained that he will remain at his position “as long as that is appropriate.”
“We in this Department of Justice will continue every single day to work hard to serve the national interest, and we wholeheartedly join in the priorities of President Trump,” he said at a news conference today.
“I have the honor of serving as attorney general, it’s something that goes beyond any thought I would have ever had for myself. We love this job, we love this department, and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate,” he said.
July 24, 2017: Trump posted a tweet that included an apparent slight against Sessions, writing: “So why aren’t the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?”
Sessions did not immediately respond to the tweet.
July 25, 2017: For the second day in a row, the president aired his frustration with his attorney general and took aim again at his Democratic rival.
“Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!” Trump wrote in a tweet.
Sessions did not immediately respond to the tweet.
Later that day, during a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Trump said that he is “disappointed” with Sessions.
Trump said that he wants Sessions “to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before at a very important level.”
“We will see what happens. Time will tell. Time will tell,” he added.
July 26, 2017: Sessions went to a meeting at the White House that the president did not attend. In a morning tweet Trump slammed his attorney general for not replacing the acting FBI director.
“Why didn’t A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife’s political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!” Trump wrote in two tweets.
That meeting came shortly after a U.S. official told ABC News that Sessions’ chief of staff, Jody Hunt, recently informed White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus that Sessions has no plans to resign from his post, despite growing pressure from Trump.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders later told reporters that Trump has “been very clear” about his feelings on Sessions.
“He’s obviously disappointed but also wants the attorney general to continue to focus on the things that the attorney general does. He wants him to lead the Department of Justice. He wants to do that strongly. He wants him to focus on things like immigration, leaks and a number of other issues,” Sanders said.
She went on, “You can be disappointed in someone but still want them to continue to do their job and that’s where they are.”
ABC News’ Pierre Thomas and Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.
Sessions discussed Trump campaign-related matters with Russian ambassador, U.S. intelligence intercepts show
July 21, 20170
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Accounts from Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, intercepted by U.S. spy agencies, contradict public assertions by Attorney General Jeff Sessions (Video: Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post, Photo: Matt Rourke/The Washington Post)
By Adam Entous,
Ellen Nakashima and
Russia’s ambassador to Washington told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race, contrary to public assertions by the embattled attorney general, according to current and former U.S. officials.
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Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s accounts of two conversations with Sessions — then a top foreign policy adviser to Republican candidate Donald Trump — were intercepted by U.S. spy agencies, which monitor the communications of senior Russian officials in the United States and in Russia. Sessions initially failed to disclose his contacts with Kislyak and then said that the meetings were not about the Trump campaign.
One U.S. official said that Sessions — who testified that he had no recollection of an April encounter — has provided “misleading” statements that are “contradicted by other evidence.” A former official said that the intelligence indicates that Sessions and Kislyak had “substantive” discussions on matters including Trump’s positions on Russia-related issues and prospects for U.S.-Russia relations in a Trump administration.
Sessions has said repeatedly that he never discussed campaign-related issues with Russian officials and that it was only in his capacity as a U.S. senator that he met with Kislyak.
“I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign,” Sessions said in March when he announced that he would recuse himself from matters relating to the FBI probe of Russian interference in the election and any connections to the Trump campaign.
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Current and former U.S. officials said that that assertion is at odds with Kislyak’s accounts of conversations in two encounters during the campaign, one in April ahead of Trump’s first major foreign policy speech and another in July on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.
The apparent discrepancy could pose new problems for Sessions as his position in the administration appears increasingly tenuous.
Trump, in an interview this week, expressed frustration with Sessions’s recusing himself from the Russia probe and indicated regret at making the lawmaker from Alabama the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Trump also faulted Sessions as giving “bad answers” during his confirmation hearing about his Russia contacts during the campaign.
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Officials emphasized that the information contradicting Sessions comes from U.S. intelligence on Kislyak’s communications with the Kremlin, and they acknowledged that the Russian ambassador could have mischaracterized or exaggerated the nature of his interactions.
“Obviously I cannot comment on the reliability of what anonymous sources describe in a wholly uncorroborated intelligence intercept that the Washington Post has not seen and that has not been provided to me,” said a Justice Department spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, in a statement. She reasserted that Sessions did not discuss interference in the election.
Russian and other foreign diplomats in Washington and elsewhere have been known, at times, to report false or misleading information to bolster their standing with their superiors or to confuse U.S. intelligence agencies.
But U.S. officials with regular access to Russian intelligence reports say Kislyak — whose tenure as ambassador to the United States ended recently — was known for accurately relaying details about his interactions with officials in Washington.
Sessions removed himself from direct involvement in the Russia investigation after it was revealed in The Washington Post that he had met with Kislyak at least twice in 2016, contacts he failed to disclose during his confirmation hearing in January.
“I did not have communications with the Russians,” Sessions said when asked whether anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign had communicated with representatives of the Russian government.
He has since maintained that he misunderstood the scope of the question and that his meetings with Kislyak were strictly in his capacity as a U.S. senator. In a March appearance on Fox television, Sessions said, “I don’t recall any discussion of the campaign in any significant way.”
Sessions appeared to narrow that assertion further in extensive testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June, saying that he “never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States.”
But when pressed for details during that hearing, Sessions qualified many of his answers by saying that he could “not recall” or did not have “any recollection.”
A former U.S. official who read the Kislyak reports said that the Russian ambassador reported speaking with Sessions about issues that were central to the campaign, including Trump’s positions on key policy matters of significance to Moscow.
Sessions had a third meeting with Kislyak in his Senate office in September. Officials declined to say whether U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted any Russian communications describing the third encounter.
As a result, the discrepancies center on two earlier Sessions-Kislyak conversations, including one that Sessions has acknowledged took place in July 2016 on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.
By that point, Russian President Vladimir Putin had decided to embark on a secret campaign to help Trump win the White House by leaking damaging emails about Trump’s rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.
Although it remains unclear how involved Kislyak was in the covert Russian campaign to aid Trump, his superiors in Moscow were eager for updates about the candidate’s positions, particularly regarding U.S. sanctions on Russia and long-standing disputes with the Obama administration over conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.
Kislyak also reported having a conversation with Sessions in April 2016 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, where then-candidate Trump delivered his first major foreign policy address, according to the officials familiar with intelligence on Kislyak.
Sessions has said he does not remember any encounter with Kislyak at that event. In his June testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sessions said, “I do not recall any conversations with any Russian official at the Mayflower Hotel.”
Later in that hearing, Sessions said that “it’s conceivable that that occurred. I just don’t remember it.”
Kislyak also was a key figure in the departure of national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to leave that job after The Post revealed that he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with Kislyak even while telling others in the Trump administration that he had not done so.
In that case, however, Flynn’s phone conversations with Kislyak were intercepted by U.S. intelligence, providing irrefutable evidence. The intelligence on Sessions, by contrast, is based on Kislyak’s accounts and not corroborated by other sources.
Former FBI director James B. Comey fueled speculation about the possibility of a Sessions-Kislyak meeting at the Mayflower when he told the same Senate committee on June 8 that the FBI had information about Sessions that would have made it “problematic” for him to be involved in overseeing the Russia probe.
Comey would not provide details of what information the FBI had, except to say that he could discuss it only privately with the senators. Current and former officials said he appeared to be alluding to intelligence on Kislyak’s account of an encounter with Sessions at the Mayflower.
Senate Democrats later called on the FBI to investigate the event in April at the Mayflower hotel.
Sessions’s role in removing Comey as FBI director angered many at the bureau and set in motion events that led to the appointment of former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III as a special counsel overseeing the Russia probe.
Trump’s harsh words toward the attorney general fueled speculation this week that Sessions would be fired or would resign. So far, he has resisted resigning, saying that he intends to stay in the job “as long as that is appropriate.”
Matt Zapotosky and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Members of Maryland’s congressional delegation decried the “witch hunt” against federal workers by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, and vowed to keep fighting for civil servants.
“Elon Musk and his band of misfit, post-pubescent betrayers of America and computer hackers are not opponents of corruption,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) said, to a hearty cheer from the audience. “They are agents of corruption,”
Blown up by Stalin, cathedral has rebirth
Published Aug. 20, 1995|Updated Oct. 4, 2005
The vaulted ceilings were rough and gray, with nails and bolts poking out. The walls had gaping white spaces meant, someday, for icons.
But for the few thousand people crammed into the unfinished Cathedral of Christ our Savior on Saturday, such rough spots only added to their emotion.
It was the first religious service inside the cathedral, which is being built again 64 years after Josef Stalin had it blown up.
“I thank God for letting me live to see this day,” said 76-year-old Sofia Sofonova, whose father was ordained in the cathedral in 1925 and shot in an anti-clerical campaign in 1937.
The massive reconstruction project is criticized by many Russians as too expensive, and it is being built on a site that the superstitious _ a significant number of people _ say is cursed.
But there were few skeptics Saturday in the partly finished building.
“Today we see one of the foundations for beginning the transfiguration of Russia,” Patriarch Alexey II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, told the crowd after the ceremony for the Transfiguration Day holiday.
The patriarch entered along a runner strewn with fresh grass and flowers, and five-tiered gold chandeliers lit up the gold-embroidered robes and hats of church leaders. Bowls of fruit and roses lined the altar.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has promoted the Christ our Savior project as a symbol of Russia’s rebirth, also spoke.
“We want to return hope to our people again,” he said.
Before its destruction by the Communist regime, the cathedral was the largest in Russia and a spiritual center of Russian Orthodoxy. Begun in 1837 to honor the 1812 victory over Napoleon, it took four decades to build.
But to make room for it, the czars had a convent torn down. Legend has it the nuns cursed the site, which lies along the Moscow River just west of the Kremlin.
In 1931, the curse seemed to come true when Stalin ordered the cathedral razed. But the Soviets had no better luck.
Stalin’s plans to build a grandiose Palace of Soviets sputtered for lack of resources when World War II began, and his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, finally turned the site into a public swimming pool.
Now, with strong backing from the mayor, help from banks and businesses, and the blessing of President Boris Yeltsin, the building is being worked on round-the-clock by construction crews.
Estimates of the cathedral’s costs vary. Last week, the English-language Moscow Times cited Luzhkov’s office as putting it at 1.1-trillion rubles _ about $250-million.
Luzhkov has said the cathedral will be paid for entirely through donations. On Thursday, a major Russian bank donated 110 pounds of gold.
Alexey II said he expects regular services to begin early next year.
Rosamond Press 
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