Church persecution in Kiev, financial crisis in the U.S.

Within hours of Zelensky's decision to close and desecrate one of Christianity's holiest sites, the U.S. faced one of the worst bank collapses in its history, igniting a financial crisis.

The Kiev Lavra

As I write these lines, the stocks of nearly every bank in the western world are tanking. Regional banks, such as First Republic, which lost about 60% of its value, have been hit the hardest. Of course, you probably already heard that Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in California collapsed, as did Signature Bank in New York. Both had to be rescued by the government.

The collapse of SVB came hours after Zelensky’s regime gave the order to evict the monks from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, one of Orthodox Christianity’s holiest sites. Ukraine’s Culture Minister disrespectfully referred to the monastery’s sacred relics and Church ritual objects as “exhibition items”. 

With the exception of the Soviet period, Orthodox monks have prayed at the Lavra for 1,000 years. Like Russia, nearly 75% of Ukraine is Orthodox Christian. Indeed, no two other nations on Earth are so closely bound by common linguistic, religious, historical and cultural bonds. These facts are sufficient proof that war between the two Slavic neighbors is an artificial creation of conniving western oligarchs who use Ukraine as a pawn to weaken and even try to destroy Russia.

Despite the Soviet-style repression, the Kiev monks are determined to remain in the Lavra. Yesterday (Sunday), thousands of devout Ukrainian believers flooded the Lavra to send a sharp signal to Zelensky’s regime. One Church leader, Metropolitan Clement, said Zelensky’s decree “doesn’t mean anything.”

"How can we leave?” added the Metropolitan. “We’re responsible for this heritage that we have guarded for decades. And now we must leave it to its destroyers?”

Yesterday’s meeting of believers at the Kiev Lavra

It’s important to be clear that this is a war against all Christians and not just the Orthodox world. Zelensky’s bizarre claims that Ukrainian Church clergy are “Russian sympathizers” is patently false. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has spoken out against Moscow and supports peace.

The UOC remains in canonical communion with the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church because they share a 1,000-year common bond and because Christ calls for all Christians to be a single community, above geopolitics. 

In 2022, Zelensky’s regime began to target leading figures in the UOC and sanction them. To weaken the Church, Zelensky’s regime favors the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU), which is an illegitimate religious organization established after the violent insurrection in Kiev in early 2014 that was supported by the U.S. and other NATO countries. 

The leaders of the Orthodox Church have called on Christians across the globe to condemn Zelensky’s repression. So where is the Pope and the Vatican? Where are all the other Christian leaders in the U.S. and Europe?

As of this moment, I cannot find any information about the Vatican’s position on the situation in Kiev. And there can only be one position. The Pope must vehemently condemn Zelensky’s regime and call upon the Kiev Lavra to be protected from desecration. The Pope’s failure to do so will only strip him of all legitimacy to act as head of the Roman Catholic Church, and reveal him to be a fraud. 

In the end, Orthodox believers in Ukraine are certain of Christ’s victory over evil, though there will be hardships.

"I’m surprised how people in power boldly claim they’ll decide the fate of the Lavra. After all, no man on earth knows about his personal destiny even what will happen to us tomorrow,” said Metropolitan Clement. “Many elders foretold about the Lavra that before the end of the world and the Apocalypse, the desecration of its shrines will take place. Faithful people are well aware of these predictions by holy men.”

Yesterday at the Lavra

The NATO-Russia war will only end when one side is destroyed financially and economically. Fighting on the battlefield is important, but the main arena is economic and financial warfare. This decisive battle has been happening in the form of sanctions, counter-sanctions and other economic measures that Russia and NATO countries have thrown at each other.

Thanks to Russia, since 1990 most of the NATO countries have enjoyed access to cheap energy. That era is now over. Persistent high energy prices will continue to bring havoc upon NATO economies, and the pain will be felt through at least 2025. Well, that is if the Western economies survive that long, which I think is unlikely.

After Friday’s collapse of Silicon Valley Bank it’s clear that Moscow is winning the economic and financial war. Runaway inflation is one example of how economic warfare is exacting a heavy toll on the West. This inflation is due to the energy war with Russia. The Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes are an effort to bring inflation under control, and this is precisely what has precipitated the current financial crisis. 

Sure, the roots of this financial crisis are in the reckless U.S. government anti-Covid spending in 2020. That money settled in banks, which then invested that money in U.S. government bonds with very low yields since interest rates at that time were almost zero.

But the fact remains that the energy war with Russia, and subsequent inflation, is the catalyst for this current crisis. Though the coincidence of the repression against the Kiev Lavra and the start of the financial crisis is a very very interesting phenomenon. 

Meanwhile, the Russian economy has stabilized and is poised for growth as Moscow deepens economic ties with China, India, and the rest of the countries of the world that don’t want to follow NATO’s suicidal policies that are pushing their own countries to financial and economic ruin, falling fast into the abyss.