Russian trip part I: The Russian Spring...

On 5 April in the evening i was in a taxi driving me to my destination in Moscow. The taxi driver was a very friendly man although he could not speak English. "Ich bin ein Dumkopf" ("I'm a fool") he said in broken German and that was all he could say. He pointed to beautiful churches, the river 'Moskva' and we got into Moscow. While in most parts of Europe the Spring already has begun, in Moscow the weather was still cold and snowy.

From 8-10 April an important conference will take place. Recently, an initiative group was formed that would bring representatives, churches and people active in politics together to discuss how Christians could have more impact in their society, social-economy and politics. The name of the conference was: "Civic responsibility of a Christian for his Russian fatherland" and was organized in collaboration with the ECPM and the Dutch Reformed Party (SGP).

I arrived safely to my destination. The next day I slept out a bit and worked on my presentation and the preparations for the event. I talked with Ekaterina, the project coordinator for Russia and with Sergey, the Russian expert about Christian Democracy and one of the most active of the organization committee. The committee exists of five persons: Ekaterina, Sergej, father German, serving as priest from the Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir, a colonel who served in Afghanistan and in the Balkans and Valeri a Christian business person who is active in the battle against corruption. The preparations went well and it looks quite promising.

Next day I had meetings with two important persons working in the Russian parliament. One was of more philosophical background and the other person was also connected more with the Russian orthodox church. Both they wanted to build bridges between the parliamentarian groups in the Russian Duma and the Christian values. We had a good discussion and also we talked about the meeting in the Russian parliament they wanted to organise the next day. In the afternoon Dutch senator Roel Kuiper arrived and joined us for dinner with the people from the organizing committee. Tomorrow the event will start.

When I arrived, the snow was melting.

Spring will start in Russia as well...!

Corruption Scandal on the Sale of Schengen Visas in Malta discussed in the European Parliament

Ivan Grech Mintoff (leader of the ECPM-Member Party Alleanza Bidla) presented in the Maltese court a transcript of the testimonies of several Libyans who claimed that in 2015, they bought an unknown number of humanitarian medical visas from an official in the Office of the of the Maltese Prime Minister. These medical visas are not supposed to be sold. Following an agreement between Malta and Libya, they are issued for free. The documents submitted in the court also claim that Schengen visas were illicitly sold at the Maltese Consulate in Tripoli over a period of 14 months (in 2013 and 2014). In this period, 88000 Schengen Visas (300 visas per day including Saturdays and Sundays) have been sold. This illegal scheme could have earned the perpetrators millions of euros. Although the Consulate in Tripoli has closed, it is unclear if this practice has stopped or is still continuing via other countries or Malta up to today. On the 27th of June, ECPM invited Mr Mintoff to the E...

Third refusal of the registration of the Belarusian Christian Democracy, despite of international pressure

Some time ago,I wrote here about the situation in Belarus concerning the Belarusian Christian Democracy and their attempts to legally register their party. Recently a new constituency congress was organized in order to try to register the party for the third time. However, on the same day that the EU Council of Foreign Ministers will discuss about the "Belarusian issue", from their press center I received the news that it is unlikely that the party will be officially registered this time On October,24 expired the term allocated by the law for making decision on registration of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party, It is worth mentioning that on September 12, 2010 the third Constituent Congress of the BCD was held and on September,19 the Belarusian Christian Democracy party applied for registration to the Ministry of Justice. But with the looming prospect of the meeting of the Council of EU Foreign Ministers to be held today, on the 25th of October in Brussels, during whic...

Leo van Doesburg

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