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The Prophetic Messenger - March/April 2015 - Is Russia Rebuilding The Former Soviet Union? - Part III

The Prophetic Messenger


A Newsletter From Mysteries From The Word Of God Ministries
March/April 2015 - Volume 17/Issue 2

Is Russia Rebuilding The Former Soviet Union? - Part III

If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. Ezekiel 33:3-4

In this issue of The Prophetic Messenger, we will continue a message titled “Is Russia Rebuilding The Former Soviet Union?”

1. Russian News Agency Returns to Using Old Soviet Acronym

In another sign that Russia is rebuilding the former Soviet Union, the Russian News Agency has returned to using the old Soviet acronym TASS. In an article titled “Russian News Agency Goes Back to Old Soviet Name _ Tass _ Dropping the Acronym ITAR”(Note 1) it says

“The Russian news agency known since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union as ITAR-Tass has reverted to its old, historical name: Tass. Some see it as another sign of Russian nostalgia for the Soviet era, which has been heightened by the conflict between Russia and the West over Ukraine. But it may also simply be an acknowledgment that the re-branding effort never really stuck. The news agency was founded in 1904 under the last Russian czar. It was renamed after the 1917 Russian Revolution as the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, or TASS. After the 1991 Soviet collapse, the agency became ITAR-Tass, with the acronym standing for Information Telegraph Agency of Russia.”

2. Putin Tried to Unite Old Soviet States

In October 2104 Putin tried to unite the old Soviet States. In an article titled “Ex-Soviet States Bicker as Putin Tries to Unite Them”(Note 2) it says

“Vulgar chants about Vladimir Putin before he arrived for a regional summit in Belarus did not augur well for the Russian president's hopes of bringing the leaders of former Soviet republics closer together. Matters got even worse when bickering broke out at the start of the meeting, revealing fault lines over the Ukraine crisis and deepening doubts about the future of the loose grouping known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. Jibes between Putin and the leader of Moldova, and barbs aimed at the absent Ukrainian leader, raised new questions about his ability to woo countries to the Eurasian Economic Union he is creating to try to rival the European Union's economic might. ‘Unfortunately disintegration tendencies are growing in the Commonwealth, especially considering attempts by individual well-wishers to bury the CIS,’ Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko told the leaders, seated at a vast, ornate round table in the huge Independence Palace in the capital Minsk. Underlining the need to end the bloodshed in Ukraine, he said: ‘The fighting directly affects the security and undermines the economic development of both Ukraine and the entire post-Soviet region as a whole.’ Lukashenko is a supporter of the CIS but his warning showed the extent of the problems Putin faces trying to rebuild ties between countries that were once part of the Soviet Union but are wary of letting Moscow come to dominate them again. As Russia seeks to avoid international isolation because of Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict, tension is growing rather than falling among the former Soviet states. Strains among some, such as Armenia and Azerbaijan, go deep. This ensures that though the Eurasian Economic Union groups countries with a shared population of 170 million, a combined annual GDP of $2.7 trillion (1.68 trillion pound) and vast energy riches, Putin is a long way from achieving his dream of building a bloc to match the EU, the United States and China as an economic power.”

In another article titled “Putin’s Push to Reinstate Soviet Power Will Grow, ex-CIA Chief Says”(Note 3) it says

“The former top CIA official is warning that even if Russian President Vladimir Putin were to measurably tone down his expansionist rhetoric in the near term, his push to grow Russia’s influence over former Soviet states ‘seems only to have just begun.’ ‘Even if we see a quieter Putin in the coming weeks and months, we’ll do well to remember the size of his arsenal and the scope of his ambitions,’ John E. McLaughlin, deputy CIA director under former President George W. Bush, wrote in an article published Thursday. Mr. McLaughlin, who also briefly served as the agency’s acting director in 2004, says recent moves by NATO to protect Eastern Europe from Russian military aggression ‘may be too conventional to thwart Putin’s ‘hybrid warfare’ strategy, which subtly combines special forces, cyber tactics, propaganda, media control, mainline troops and manipulative public statements.’ Following Russia’s March 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, the Obama administration has successfully led an effort to level U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Moscow — a tactic designed to pressure Mr. Putin away from using his so-called hybrid strategy to absorb a wider swath of Ukraine. . . . One imagines the Baltic member states — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — tempt [Mr. Putin],” Mr. McLaughlin wrote. ‘In Estonia, for example, the economically depressed city of Narva on the Russian border is 80 percent ethnic Russian, and 36 percent already hold Russian passports.’ ‘It would not be hard for Putin to add fuel to already resentful citizens’ grievances there — they have to learn Estonian to qualify for citizenship or state jobs — and claim a need to ‘help’ them on humanitarian grounds.’”

In closing, in the next newsletter we will look at the how Russia’s rebuilding of the former Soviet Union relates to Bible prophecy.
Notes:
Note 1:http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/01/russian-news-agency-goes-back-to-old-soviet-name-tass-dropping-acronym-itar
Note 2: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/10/uk-ukraine-crisis-cis-idUKKCN0HZ1JR20141010
Note 3: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/4/putins-push-re-instate-soviet-power-will-grow-ex-c/

Coming Up In The Next Issue

Is Russia Rebuilding The Former Soviet Union?- Part IV. Read this article in the next issue of The Prophetic Messenger.

Memory Verses

As Christians if we want to live in victory and if we want to be able to share the Word Of God with others we must know the Word of God ourselves. Let's see what the Bible says about this. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Psalm 119:11. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." John 15:7. "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed." John 8:31. We encourage you to put the following scriptures in your heart: II Peter 1:9, Matthew 8:3, Mark 5:9, Exodus 2:8, Mark 7:20, Psalm 89:7, Luke 16:22, Isaiah 60:1, Luke 13:11, Exodus 17:15. Use only the Old King James version of the Holy Bible. (If you have any questions about this please see the book New Age Bible Versions, by G.A. Riplinger ©1993, ISBN 0-9635845-0-2.)

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