Andy Potts

Murder in the chapel

Murdered priest ‘received death threats'

A Russian Orthodox priest gunned down in his Moscow church may have been targeted by cult members or Muslim fundamentalists.

Daniil Sysoyev, 34, died in hospital after being shot in the head by a masked gunman in St. Thomas the Apostle Church, near Kantemir-ovskaya metro, on Thursday evening, RIA Novosti reported.

A spokesman for the investigators told Rossiya TV: "The main theory is that religious motives are behind the crime."

And that was backed up by a report in Komsomolskaya Pravda claiming that Sysoyev had told reporters he had faced 14 death threats - largely linked to his missionary work in Muslim areas and his efforts to help people trying to leave religious sects.

"They've threatened to cut my head off 14 times," the paper quoted the priest as saying. "The FSB got in touch a year ago to say they had uncovered a murder plot against me."

Sysoyev also told the paper that in the past year, his church had "christened 80 Muslims, among them Tatars, Uzbeks, Chechens and Dagestanis" and that many Orthodox priests feared "revenge" for missionary work among Muslims.

In God we mistrust

Communist delegates want to remove the word "God" from the national anthem in order to reflect Russia's religious diversity, RIA Novosti reports.

Although Communist party rep Boris Kashin has no problem with the famous opening line's reference to "Sacred Russia", he is getting cross about a line in a later verse which translates as: "By God saved as ever our dear native land."

He wants to replace "God" with "us", to include the recognised faiths of Islam, Buddhism and Judaism as well as the many atheists living in Russia.

Not surprisingly, the Russian Orthodox Church is reluctant to allow the devil to get another good tune. Moscow Archpriest Georgy Roshchin claims that the text reflects the founding of Russia as a Christian nation in the 10th century and insists that changing the words would sow discord, not harmony.

Defrosted

A Russian icebreaker that got trapped in the Antarctic has fought its way out of the heavy ice zone, a spokesman Russia's Far Eastern shipping company said on Friday.

The Captain Khlebnikov, which was carrying more than 100 tourists and a British film crew, spent much of last week inching its way out of heavy ice in a scene reminiscent of Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner".

The vessel emerged from the ice 780 knots from the nearest port, Ushuaia in Argentina, where the passengers were expected to disembark on arrival early this week.

No satire for Russia's leaders

After a long break since the notorious Kukly (Puppets) satire show went off air in 2002, Russian TV has once again begun poking fun at the high and mighty.

But while Mult Lichnosti (Cartoon Personalities) was happy to mock Ukraine's political infighting, Guus Hiddink and Andrei Arshavin's preparations for Slovenia and various celebs, there was little sign of any Russian politician facing the writers' barbs.

Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov put in a brief appearance, fending off an amorous Hillary Clinton, but Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev were conspicuous by their absence.

Political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin told Britain's Daily Telegraph that TV satire had "degraded" since the glory days of Kukly, a Spitting Image-style show which mocked Boris Yeltsin and the early days of Putin's presidency.

"In this situation, of course, it's impossible to even think of making Putin or Medvedev into a comic figure," Oreshkin told the London-based paper.

Kremlin aide out

President Dmitry Medvedev has sacked a prominent media advisor for abusing his position, according to Interfax agency. Mikhail Lesin's departure was announced last week "at his own request", but an unnamed Kremlin source later said that Lesin had been sacked for using "his position to resolve questions not related to his official duties". Other reports alleged that a conflict of interests caused Lesin's departure from a post relating to media, IT and copyright issues.

Good week for ...

Swine flu fashion

Russia's top medical inspector Gennady Onishchenko wants to see designer flu masks to help combat the spread of the H1N1 virus - paving the way for leopard-print patterns and glittery finishes on the nation's faces. According to Reuters, Onishchenko told a conference in Tomsk last week: "They could design them as clothing ... it would be absolutely amazing."

Bad week for ...

Open borders

Plans to introduce visa-free travel between Russia and the EU have been scuppered by "a considerable political component", according to Moscow's envoy in Brussels, Vladimir Chizhov. Romano Prodi promised to abolish visas by 2008, Chizhov told Rossiiskaya Gazeta, and blamed political issues caused by Europe. He also pointed out that the former Yugoslav republics negotiated a visa-free regime within months.