Meet the man who built Moscow… from paper. Sergei Tarasov recently completed this remarkably detailed modular origami models of Saint Basil’s cathedral using folded bits of paper. The school teacher spent the past year meticulously building the incredibly accurate replicas of the historic landmark in the Russian capital with tens of thousands of pieces of paper. The 42-year-old, from the village of Tigritskoye in southern Russia, has plenty to show for all his hard work, as he unveiled the awe-inspiring work he built at home, which stands at 1.5 metres tall.
Rating: 6|Votes: 9
In a few minutes, the oil lamps will be lit in Agiou Andrea, one of 12 "sketes," or monastic communities, on Mount Athos. There's not a single empty space in the choir benches. Sitting behind the singing, rhythmically chanting monks are pilgrims from Greece, Russia and Romania. They have slept a few hours on spartan beds, gone without electricity and warm water, and spent the night swatting at mosquitoes.
My stomach lurches. The young man in front of me suddenly plunges down the stairwell and seems to be dangling in mid-air three floors up. Then silently - without so much as a grunt - he springs over the banister and is standing next to me again. Evgeny Krynin is one of St Petersburg's most renowned Parkour artists - the urban sport which mixes acrobatics and athletics and is similar to the discipline known as free running. Parkour may have first taken off in France in the 1990s, but Krynin says the true home of this extreme sport, which requires participants to leap, climb and somersault across buildings, is Russia.
Rating: 10|Votes: 1
In the ongoing saga of foreign affairs involving the Republic of Georgia and the Russian Federation, one story has escaped the attention of the news media. It is the story of an Orthodox Christian parish in Toronto, Canada, where Orthodox of all ethnicities, but especially Russian and Georgian, have come together as brothers, as children in the Kingdom of God. It is a joyful unity unnoticed by the outside world, but for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, it is a foretaste of the age to come, made possible only in Christ.
Rating: 9,3|Votes: 3
he Greek Orthodox monks of St Catherine’s monastery in Sinai have been accumulating manuscripts and books since the sixth century, making their library the world’s greatest repository of early medieval writing after the Vatican. The collection is even richer than it first appears, because many of the 3,300 ancient manuscripts contain hidden text and illustrations older than their visible contents – and a large scientific effort is under way to reveal and record them.
