"Conversion of Russia" Update

Putin Takes Over the Russian Economy

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        The dupes of Fatima revisionism have offered shifting explanations of what they (as opposed to the Virgin of Fatima) mean by the "conversion" of Russia, which they assure us has been plowing ahead since the non-consecration of 1984. Sometimes they tell us that "conversion" means a revival of Russian Orthodoxy, which is hardly what the Mother of God came to Fatima to call for. In any case, there has been no revival of Russian Orthodoxy since 1984.

        Other times they tell us that "conversion" means a change of political orientation, so that Russia now offers "freedom of choice." But, of course, Our Lady of Fatima did not come to call for freedom of choice, but rather for the Triumph of Her Immaculate Heart. It seems that the only meaning the Fatima revisionists do not assign to "conversion" is the one commonly understood by Catholics and employed by Our Lady of Fatima: the embrace of the Catholic faith.

        At any rate, Russia today is, as even the secular media can see, a neo-Stalinist dictatorship under Vladimir ("the practicing Christian") Putin. There is no freedom of choice in Russia. There is not even a free economy. As Ariel Cohen reported in the April 5, 2005 edition of The Moscow Times (online): "In Russia these days, a lot of the old is new again. In fact, the Russian oil and gas sector’s new paradigm can be summarized in two words: ‘state domination.’ The free market has been abandoned."

        Cohen recalls the series of events also chronicled here at fatima.org: i.e., how the "Practicing Christian" systematically shut down private communications media and major industries through criminal prosecutions and "tax collection" proceedings. Yukos, the major private oil company, was bankrupted by bogus tax obligations, and its main production facility then sold to Rosneft, a state-owned company, for $6 billion in loans — loans provided by the Red Chinese. And now Rosneft, says Cohen, "is merging with state-owned Gazprom, the largest natural gas company in the world."

        To complete the "Practicing Christian’s" total takeover of the economy, "Yuri Trutnev, the Russian Minister of Natural Resources, has announced that Moscow will keep Western firms from bidding on major natural resources mining and drilling licenses. Thus, the Kremlin, not the private sector, has become the key decision maker in licensing oil fields, determining the location of pipelines and approving consortia for production and transportation."

        Even the "Practicing Christian’s" own economic adviser Andrey Illarionov has warned that "Russia is on its way to joining the Third World economically." (He was later demoted for this and similar remarks.) And this, they would have us believe, is what Our Lady of Fatima promised as the result of Russia’s consecration to the Immaculate Heart. Let us hope and pray that Pope Benedict XVI, moved by the grace of God, ends this delusion once and for all and does what Heaven requested of the Pope at Fatima.