CIS (ex-USSR)

Listen to this BosNewsLife News report via Vatican Radio:  By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife KYIV, UKRAINE (BosNewsLife)-- As many as half a million Ukrainians have participated in a pro-European Union rally in the capital Kyiv, where many toppled the statue of late Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and called for the president to step down. Sunday's rally was the biggest demonstration since the pro-freedom Orange Revolution in 2004.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife KYIV, UKRAINE (BosNewsLife)-- Ukraine's interim President Olexander Turchynov has warned two regions in eastern Ukraine that Sunday's referendums on declaring independence could lead to their destruction. His comments came while Christians were distributing Bible books to help ease tensions, following deadly clashes between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces.

By BosNewsLife News Center in Budapest MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- Baptists in the Russian town of Lipetsk south-east of Moscow say local authorities are using "a bureaucratic way" to restrict their activities, BosNewsLife monitored Wednesday, December 3.

By BosNewsLife News Center with reports from Moscow MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- Russia buried its first post-Soviet Orthodox patriarch, Alexy II, Tuesday, December 9, after a funeral attended by presidents, foreign emissaries and the country's political elite.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife KYIV, UKRAINE (BosNewsLife)-- Metropolitan Volodymyr, who led Ukraine's Moscow-linked Orthodox Church for more than two, often turbulent, decades has died, leaving behind members struggling to overcome hardship in the war-torn east. News of his passing prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to express his condolences to the church.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN (BosNewsLife)-- Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev was set to renew his 26-year grip on power in elections on a pledge to offer the multi-ethnic Central Asian state economic and social stability in return for what rights groups call "systematic suppression" of opposition and devoted Christians.

By George Whitten, Jerusalem Bureau Chief MOSCOW/AQUILA (BosNewsLife) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called for a new global currency to replace the dollar as the World's Reserve Currency.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife

KYIV, UKRAINE (BosNewsLife)-- Ukrainian officials say dozens of people have died after pro-Russian forces shot down a military aircraft in the east, amid heavy fighting and U.S. concerns over Russian tanks entering the country. 

By BosNewsLife News Center in Budapest ASHGABAT/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- Devoted Christians in three Central Asian countries are harassed and detained by authorities in ways resembling the Soviet-era, activists and local believers suggested Friday, September 9.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife YEREVAN, ARMENIA (BosNewsLife)-- Armenia’s leading cultural authority accuses neighboring Azerbaijan of demolishing an Armenian Church in a...