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On October 3, 2018, President Vladimir Putin submitted to the Russian legislature a bill that decriminalized some of the deeds currently described in Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code. The article in question relates to “incitement to hatred,” which it defines as a crime. Alexander Verkhovsky, head of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, explains the possible reasons behind the president's amendments and discusses whether they may be regarded as a softening move.

Many among Ukrainian clergy and its government are anxious to gain full ecclesiastical autonomy for Ukrainian Church. The Ecumenical Patriarch appears willing to grant such status to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. But this issue is ecclesiastically complicated and politically fraught. We offer a view of the ecclesiastical, legal and political aspects of the decision to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church