JAPAN

“Maid cafes are just the beginning”: Maid robot creator reveals his master plan [Interview]
2022-04-13 Wed


Source: A_say (@A_says_) - image used with permission

Ever since Rosie in The Jetsons, the concept of the maid robot has become synonymous with a fictionalized version of the near future. In Japanese manga, anime and games, maid robots have taken on a more humanoid appearance. Multi in the light novel To Heart, Mahoro in Mahoromatic, Cyberdoll May in Hand Maid May are a few who come to mind.

But what if you could have a maid robot in real life? This is the question and current passion fueling the creative efforts of Japanese robot hobbyist A_say, who runs the MaSiRo Project, which stands for: "Maid Apprentice Substantializing Ideal Robot." MaSiRo (pronounced "mashiro") is also the name of the project's first maid robot.

According to his website, he dreams of a world where each household would have its own maid robot. However, as it would be very difficult to develop a maid robot that could actually move around and perform tasks in an entirely new and unknown place, he wants to set up a limited environment where maid robots can fully operate. The first testing ground will be a maid cafe, currently scheduled to open in Fall 2022.

Some of our readers may recall our article on the MaSiRo Project in 2019. Since then, MaSiRo has evolved and two twin sisters, CiRo (pronounced "chiro") and CiYa (pronouonced "chiya") were "born."

This video, featuring English subtitles, traces MaSiRo's development from her origins to her current state of development. A video focused on her sisters will follow. (Please note that the video shows images of MaSiRo's mechanical workings. If you would prefer not to see that, don't watch the video):

You can also get a sense of how close the MaSiRo Project is to fulfilling their goal of opening the cafe in this video:

Interview with A_Say

Interest in the MaSiRo Project has picked up recently. On March 13th, 2022, it was featured on TV Asahi's 発進！ミライクリエイター Hasshin Mirai Kurieitā (Advance! Future Creators). Moreover, in the past week or so, MaSiRo and her sisters have gone viral, appearing in English-language social media, featured by anime YouTubers, and earning them new fans as well as ... non-fans.

We had a chance to interview A_Say to find out what he thinks about the sudden international attention his project has received, what has changed since the last time we introduced the MaSiRo project in grape Japan, and what his plans are for the future.

Q: We first wrote about the MaSiRo Project in May 2019. What features have been improved or added since then?

A: The most significant advance is that MaSiRo has evolved from a robot that just follows you around holding your hand to a robot that can properly serve food and drinks. In 2019, her right arm was unmovable and dedicated to holding hands, while her left arm was slightly movable and could gesture a bit. Now, MaSiRo can not only follow you around holding your hand, but she can also hold and carry objects with both arms.


Another major and ongoing advance is that MaSiRo has gained the ability to move autonomously at her own discretion. This is one of the most important functions required for work in a maid café. With this, she has taken a step forward in her evolution to a maid robot that can properly bring you coffee, for example.

The other important development is that MaSiRo's younger sisters CiRo and CiYa were born. At first, we planned to have only CiRo, but the crowdfunding campaign went so well that CiYa was born as well. In the future, we plan to enhance the cooperation between MaSiRo, CiRo, and CiYa. Although it has become more difficult (due to the pandemic), we plan to have them play an active role in various ways, such as taking them to events and in rural locations as well.


Reproduced with permission from A_say (@A_says_)

Q: Your crowdfunding campaign achieved over 300% of the goal. Did you expect it to be that successful?

A: I thought we would be able to achieve 100%. However, I didn't expect to exceed the stretch goal of 230%, so I really didn't think we would have not just one younger sister for MaSiRo but two.

Q: Many online commenters pointed out that CiRo and CiYa's ears look like persocoms in Chobits. Were you influenced by persocoms? Were there other specific anime or manga that inspired your design?

A: Everyone mentions Chobits when they see CiRo and CiYa. Actually, I wasn't aware of it at all when I designed it, but when I finished it and people began saying that, I thought "Indeed!" Since the Chobits anime was one of my favorites, it's quite possible that I was strongly influenced by it somewhere in my unconscious.

I wasn't aiming for a specific character, but rather to embody the concept of "robot girls" that often appear in anime. Yumemi Hoshino from Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet, Multi from the visual novel To Heart, Tama from Gintama, and so on, they were all references for the concept of robot ears which influenced the final design.



MaSiRo is both my daughter and everyone's waifu.MaSiRo project leader A_say

Q: The MaSiRo project has recently gone viral on social media in English, Spanish and other non-Japanese languages. The next few questions address this viral activity and the nature of the comments it has produced.

To begin with, some of the positive comments on social media and on your YouTube channel include "They look so adorable", "I want a robot maid waifu at home," and "Take my money!" Please let us know what you think.

A: I am honestly happy to hear positive feedback. I understand that there are people in the world who don't like anime and that this robot isn't for everyone, so I'm happy to think that there are fellow otaku in the world who accept a robot like MaSiRo.

In the context of the otaku term "my waifu," MaSiRo is both my daughter and everyone's waifu. I hope that more and more people will recognize her as their waifu and that she will continue to be loved by otaku wherever they may be.

Q: Among the negative comments, some people said MaSiRo was scary and alluded to scenarios often portrayed in dystopian science fiction in which robots evolve to dominate and harm humans. You recently developed a wireless emergency stop switch. Why?

A: First of all, I would like to reassure everyone that things won't turn out like dystopian science fiction, at least not for quite a few years. As a developer, it would be nice to see robot intelligence develop to the point where they could theoretically dominate humanity, but I personally have no intention of bringing that about. The emergency stop button, in a nutshell, is to stop MaSiRo from operating out of control.

Robots are precision machines, so there is no way that they could all run amok due to a programming error or mechanical malfunction. If something goes wrong, it's simply dangerous for a robot to keep moving around and the motor could even break. That's why all industrial robots in the world are equipped with an emergency stop switch. So, this switch I developed isn't some kind of failsafe mechanism to stop robots from taking over the world. It's about the same as the brake pedal in your car.

Q: Some of the negative comments revealed a certain discomfort with the fact that the robots are small and "look like children." Please let us know what you think of this.

A: Honda's Asimo, for example, stands at 120 cm (just under 4 feet). This is said to be the height at which he can stand and work with a seated human. The taller a robot gets, the higher its center of gravity becomes, which increases the risk of it falling over, and also makes transporting it more difficult. Furthermore, since robots are unknown to many people, they can easily cause fear, and a tall robot can be quite intimidating. On the other hand, the smaller a robot is, the more difficult it becomes to accommodate motors and other mechanical devices.

While a small, childlike appearance can also be "cute," it's not always the best choice for a robot. Just as important or perhaps even more important for me is conveying the idea that a moderately small robot is ideally functional.

Q: You mentioned that your robots are smaller than a human adult to increase their transportability. Is there a possibility that this problem will be solved in the long run and you will work on a human-sized robot?

A: As I mentioned above, there is currently no merit for me in intentionally making a robot the size of a human adult. However, since MaSiRo is more highly functional than her sisters CiRo and CiYa, she features a growing number of mechanical parts. To accommodate them, she has grown 5 cm taller than when she was just born. In the end, it's a matter of beautility: the task that each robot needs to accomplish naturally determines its size.


The "Maid Robot Cafe" is a means to an end. Our goal is to make anime-like beings manifest in reality as if they were alive.MaSiRo project leader A_say

Q: Maid robot functions such as reacting to head patting and offering their knees for customers to rest their heads on go beyond the job description of most staff now working in Japanese maid cafes. What is your intention in implementing these functions?

A: First of all, the "Maid Robot Cafe" is a means to an end. Our goal is to make anime-like beings manifest in reality as if they were alive. When we exhibited MaSiRo and her sisters at an exhibition, both men and women wanted to pat their heads, partly because of their short stature. So then, which is more "lifelike," having no sensor and not responding, or having a sensor that detects touch and responds?

We are not making robotic systems with a maid robot café as the ultimate goal. We want to open a maid robot café as a place where anime-like beings can manifest in our world as "living creatures" using robot technology, a place where they can work and have an active role.

Reproduced with permission from A_say (@A_says_)

I agree that the knee pillow function is not a useful feature for a maid café, but this is a byproduct, so to speak. For a robot to pick up an object on the floor, it absolutely must lower its knees until they touch the floor. Being able to kneel is also necessary to make the robot as compact as possible during transportation. However, to protect the chest part and its sensitive circuits during transportation, we mounted cushions on the knees. So, the robot has padded knees to perform its task, and the result was a structure that can also be used as a knee pillow.

Q: MaSiRo, CiRo, and CiYa cannot speak at present, but do you plan to add a speaking function in the future?

A: They will not speak for a while yet. Even with today's technology, it's easy to generate speech, but once a robot speaks, people will think, "This robot can talk!" and talk to them in an attempt to have a conversation. However, with the current state of technology, having a natural conversation is not yet possible. And when they realize that they can't have a converastion, people can get disappointed and harbor negative feelings.

Therefore, until a time in the future when conversational AI has greatly developed, MaSiRo and her sisters will remain silent. However, although they don't speak yet, they'll be able to easily listen to what people say. We are currently developing a voice-recognition system to that end.

Q: You've said that the maid robot cafe is scheduled to open this fall. Are you on schedule?

A: We're mostly on schedule, and we're working hard. This will be the first experimental store, and we're planning on operating it for a limited time with a limited number of visitors.

The maid robot café ... (is) just the beginning.MaSiRo project leader A_say

Q: In the comments on social media and on your YouTube channel, some people have expressed interest in buying your maid robots. On your crowdfunding page, which ended last September, you said that "the next step in this crowdfunding process was to investigate whether selling or renting would be possible." Since then, has your investigation yielded an answer?

A: At the moment, we are not at that stage yet. They malfunction frequently, so we're continually redesigning them. Also, since we aren't a company, we can't sell or rent them yet, or even provide support when they break down. Therefore, our priority is being able to smoothly operate the maid robot café this fall, and that's our starting line, it's just the beginning.

Q: In a near future when maid robots work in maid cafes, how do you see the relationship between maid robots and maid humans? Will they be friends working together, rivals, or something else?

A: I don't believe that maid robots will be considered the equals of humans in the immediate future. Rather, I see their relationship as being similar to that of humans and cats. They can somehow communicate their intentions even if they don't talk. For example, in stores with cats, cat-loving customers can be soothed by just being near them. Some customers dote on them, some customers hate them.

However, cats can't replace humans, and humans can't replace cats. They are just "that kind of creature" that's different from humans. If it's a cat's job to be petted by humans, it's a maid robot's job to serve humans in cafes. In summary, I think we can consider maid robots "partners who have charms that humans don't have."

Q: Is the MaSiRo project ending with a single maid robot cafe, or is there a larger plan?

A: The Maid Robot Cafe is just a waypoint. As I said earlier, I want to manifest entities from the world of anime into our real world as if they were "living things." Leaving aside the philosophical implications of what "living" means, I define it here as "being needed by humans in their environment and having an active role" and interacting with these humans so that they think "they seem to be alive."

A café is "a place where robots are needed by humans in their environment and have an active role," and this definition can be extended to other places besides cafés in the future. Creating "technology that makes people think something is alive" is a continual process. No matter how much we perfect it, we'll never be able to finish it.

I know many people will feel uncomfortable with the first version. However, I think it would be fun to see a future in which people will really think that beings from the world of anime have manifested as "living beings" in the real world and people would accept them as such. Just in the same way that ads for anime shows and goods are lined up in the streets of Japan and recognized as "those kinds of ads," this would be a world in which anime-like robots would be integrated into society as "those kinds of beings."

With a successful crowdfunding project completed in September 2021 and a grant from the INNO-vation Program sponsored by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, A_Say and his team are hard at work preparing for this fall. Now, with additional international attention, perhaps his progress will be accelerated.

If you'd like to support the MaSiRo Project or find out more about it, see the following links:
MaSiRo Project official website (English)
Call for supporters and collaborators
MaSiRo Project YouTube Channel
Tipping: How you can contribute
Pixiv Fanbox
Booth (online shop) for MaSiRo Project goods
A_Say Twitter account

If you live in Japan or will be visiting in late summer and would like to see MaSiRo, CiRo and CiYa in person, they will be making their next appearance at the 59th "F-Con" Nihon SF Taikai (convention) to be held on August 27th and 28th.

TRANSCRIPT | Get Russia Out of Ukraine or Risk Return to ‘Age of Wars’

In our podcast, Andrii Gurenko, Ukrainian international relations expert, says the behavior of democratic countries towards Russia will be crucial.


on April 18, 2022
By Arielle Busetto

Andrii Gurenko (Photo by JAPAN Forward)

First of two parts

International relations expert Andrii Gurenko joined the JAPAN Forward team for its first podcast in Japanese on Twitter Spaces on March 11. Gurenko, who is from Ukraine, shared his insights on the background of Russia’s invasion, causes of the war, and what can Japan and the international community do going forward.

Yasuo Naito, editor in chief of JAPAN Forward, hosted the discussion. Previously the Moscow Bureau Chief for The Sankei Shimbun, Naito is an experienced foreign correspondent, reporting from Moscow among other places on the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and much more.

In this first installment, Naito’s questions and Mr. Gurenko’s comments focus on the causes of the conflict and the role of the international community.

Excerpts of the English translation follow.

The war in Ukraine does not appear to be going well for Russia. Why do you think that is?

I don’t know if one can call this a miscalculation, but I think that the military plan was not based on the real situation and was naive, overly optimistic. In reality, the military campaign is dragging on. In other words, they didn’t predict such opposition. They thought that the resistance would fall just as easily as it had in Crimea.

I think also another difference is the motivation of Ukrainian soldiers. In that sense perhaps we can talk of miscalculation. The motivation of soldiers is linked to the reason for fighting. For Ukrainians this is clear: there was an invasion, and they need to protect their homeland. It’s a clear and simple reason. And when one fights for this reason, then one fights to the death.

But Russia is in a different position. They are the invaders and they don’t really have a reason. Putin has tried to put an excuse to justify the invasion, such as the fact that killings were taking place in Ukraine, and they are fighting Nazism. But they are senseless reasons, and many people know that these explanations are lies. Therefore, some portion of the Russian soldiers have a very low motivation to fight. Because they understand that they are invaders, and invaders tend to have lower motivation to begin with.

As far as equipment goes, Russia has an advantage. But their conviction [to win] is completely different, and that is having an impact on how the war is going, more than many people expected.

In addition, the weapons sent by the West, especially anti-tank and hypersonic missiles, are proving very effective in this war.

Service members of pro-Russian troops ride on armored vehicles in Ukraine-Russia conflict near the city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 15, 2022. REUTERS/Chingis Kondarov

Why do you think that Russia invaded Ukraine?

There is an ideological reason. He (Russian President Vladimir Putin) really believes that Russians and Ukranians are the same people. And therefore, in his reasoning, it’s obvious that the same people should be in the same country.

It might sound crazy, but Putin is a crazy person. He thought that even though people might not welcome the Russian army, at the very least they would not resist.

From his perspective, this invasion is just a way of reinstating territory that was in the past part of the mother country, and Russia is just taking back territory where other Russians live. This vision of course has nothing to do with reality, because he lives in an illusion.

The other reason is the trauma from the fall of the United Soviet Socialist Republic. Putin himself has said multiple times that the breaking up of the USSR is the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.

He thinks that this territory was wrongly taken from Russia. Therefore, following this logic, obviously one needs to reinstate it. The idea is therefore not that Russia is an empire invading other countries, but that it is just recovering a territory that was already theirs.

Often commentators talk about how Russia has everything to lose from this invasion, and nothing to gain. And that is definitely true. But Putin thinks that this is the correct thing to do. Therefore, that’s why he is doing it.


Why is Putin doing this?

The reason why this is happening in the first place is that the longer a dictator is in power, the more the dictator’s thinking becomes progressively less grounded in reality. Putin has already been a dictator for 22 years. He has unrivaled authority.

If someone has absolute power, there are no opposing opinions. For example, Putin has people working under him that every day report to him. But they are afraid of saying things that might upset him, and hide that information.

Therefore, the information he is seeing is information that he likes, that he agrees with. In this way he falls at risk of acquiring a skewed version of reality.

It’s probable that he received reports saying that if Russia invaded Ukraine, the worst that could happen is that people would not resist. The more people under a dictator are afraid of speaking the truth, the more information gets divorced from reality. This is something that happens with all dictators, and in that sense Putin is no exception.

A person wears a crown of sunflowers in a rally against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine outside City Hall in Ottawa, Ontario, Feb. 27, 2022.

 (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

So the next question is, why now?

I think that Putin thought that he had no other option available to get hold of Ukraine. The reason for this is because already in 2014 he invaded Crimea, there was the word “Nova Rossia” (New Russia). At that time he tried to put pressure on the population not with the army, but through armed groups. That didn’t go well, and the Ukrainians resisted.

Then, between August 2014 and February 2015, Russia defeated the Ukrainian army twice. Because Ukraine had seen defeat twice, Russia thought that, with some military pressure, it would definitely give up [its independence]. But that didn’t happen.

Since then, [Russia] has tried different tactics: there were terrorist attacks in Ukraine, assasinations, and economic pressure intended to make Ukraine give up. But that also didn’t work.


What do you see that changed?

In 2019, Volodymyr Zelenskyy won the presidential election in Ukraine, and he was of the party whose platform was that the war needed to be stopped. But looking at his affiliation, Russia thought that they would make Ukraine give up.

And Russia did put pressure, but on specific things to do with independence and sovereignty, Ukraine did not give in.

Following that, in 2021, Joe Biden won the presidential election in the US. Biden was known to be anti-war. And because he hates war, Russia thought that if it did start a war, Biden wouldn’t do anything. However, it was not so simple, and Biden in reality did not want to allow Ukraine simply to fall under the Russian sphere of influence.

Therefore, if you look at it as a whole, [Russia] tried to do a variety of things, but nothing went according to plan. From Putin’s perspective, I think that he decided that the only thing left to try was to directly attack Ukraine.

In addition, he probably thought that if he waited any longer, Ukraine would increase its military capability. Therefore, he could have seen it as a preventative measure to avoid greater problems in the future.


Some people are already afraid that this will turn into a second Afghanistan, where Russia invaded and then retreated two decades later. What scenarios are realistic?

There are some scenarios which are conceivable.

The first scenario is one of guerrilla warfare. In this case, there will be losses on the Ukrainian side, but also on the Russian side. And they will not be like Afghanistan. There will be many more deaths.

There is the scenario where Russia increases its military pressure, and Ukraine is forced to give up. But even in this case, there might be a temporary victory, it doesn’t mean the situation will not develop into guerrilla warfare. The situation is not just going to calm down.

There is also the possibility that the current government is left in place, but [as Russia wins] it has to negotiate and give up a lot of information, even without being a puppet government.

FAMOUS RUSSIAN ZAMBONI DRIVER

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a concert marking the eighth anniversary of the referendum on the state status of Crimea and Sevastopol and its reunification with Russia. March 18, 2022. (Ramil Sitdikov/Sputnik Pool Photo via AP)

On the other hand, the situation could just stay like it is now, in a stalemate for months or even years, and the Russian army doesn’t progress any further.

One optimistic view is that this stalemate continues, and early on, due to financial sanctions, Russia financially collapses. And then the money to conduct this war runs out. The control of territory becomes impossible, and therefore they (the Russians) have no choice but to retreat.

Right now, it’s impossible to see which scenario is going to be more likely, but the international community needs to work hard in order to make sure that this last scenario is the one that plays out.

What happens is ultimately up to the international community, I think.


What do you think the world will look like in the future?

I think that everything will depend on how the democratic countries behave, I think if these countries come together and impose measures on Russia ー which don’t need to be military, they can be economic measures ー to make Russia give up this war. That way the international order is preserved, and even those countries that are thinking about a possible invasion, might rethink their strategy.

If, however, there is no way of stopping the invasion, this will lead to a breakdown of the international world order.

Because countries that are pondering invading other areas, such as China, for example, their path is cleared for an easier invasion. If invasion has already succeeded once, and the international community didn’t do very much, then I think that wars will increase.

In addition, if it becomes clear that even in the case of invasion nothing happens, those countries that may previously have feared invasion and didn’t do anything, might later decide to strengthen their army and hastily invade other countries.

More countries might decide they want to acquire nuclear weapons.

If this happens, in turn, the whole concept of nuclear non-proliferation might become impossible to actualize as more countries acquire nuclear weapons.

In this case, not all countries will be able to manage the weapons properly. And the world will become a more unsafe place in the future. It could lead to chaos.

I therefore think that this war is a crucial crossroad ー to decide whether the world order will be preserved and the era of peace will continue, or whether this will be the catalyst for the return of a period of total war, like the 19th century, with empires fighting one another.

This is why the behavior of democratic countries is so important.

600 Kansas City-area construction workers near second week on strike for major wage increases

George Gallanis

WSWS.ORG

Last Tuesday, nearly 600 Kansas City-area construction workers went on strike to demand substantial wage increases after rejecting a contract proposal from the Builders Association, a construction trade association.

According to the International Union of Painter and Allied Trades (IUPAT) Local 2012, striking workers again overwhelmingly voted to reject an “interim agreement” on Friday. In addition to painters, the IUPAT includes tradespersons who work on glazing, drywall and flooring.

Striking Kansas City trades workers (IUPAT District Council #3)

Workers would have received a raise of just 1 percent under the Builders Association’s first proposal, according to local press reports. With consumer prices having risen 8.5 percent in the 12 months ending in March, such a raise would in fact have meant a 7.5 percent cut in workers’ real income.

Speaking to ABC affiliate KMBC News, Renee Adams, a striking painter, said, “We’re not even getting a cost-of-living wage. It’s a slap in the face to us. We feel disrespected.”

As inflation eats away at the pay of workers across the world, the strike in Kansas City has emerged as part of a growing movement of the working class internationally for improved living conditions. Protests and demonstrations in Sri Lanka, Peru, Indonesia, Pakistan and elsewhere have exploded recently as workers fight against unbearable living costs.

Throughout the pandemic, construction workers have continued to work even as COVID-19 has ripped across communities and work sites. Construction workers in Texas were found to be five times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID, according to an October 2020 study in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. In Colorado, construction accounted for the most COVID deaths of any industrial sector as of mid-2021, state Department of Health data showed.

The stark contrast between being dubbed “essential” workers and the insulting pay increases on offer has fueled anger among the strikers, as it has among other sections of workers who have struck over the last year, including teachers, John Deere workers, nurses, health care workers and others.

Speaking on the strike, Frank Carpenter, Business Manager of IUPAT Local 2012, told KMBC News, “You can’t just sit back and take it all the time. You’ve got to actually do something about it. This is the most peaceful way to do it.”

However, the IUPAT’s actions indicate that the union is seeking to isolate the strike and end it as soon as possible. On Sunday evening, IUPAT District Council 3 announced on its Facebook page that it would be ordering a “stand-down” Monday after supposed progress in negotiations, writing, “Contract Negotiations Committee is meeting Monday afternoon with management. Your pressure campaign is working. We are going to order a stand-down tomorrow. There will be NO STRIKE ACTIONS.”

Instead of seeking to mobilize the thousands of other construction workers in the Kansas City metro region behind the strike, the IUPAT has been appealing to federal mediators as supposedly “neutral” arbiters, while trotting out Democratic Party politicians, such as Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, as “friends of labor.”

But the Democrats, no less than their Republican counterparts, are representatives of big business. Just last month, Mayor Lucas touted a data center to be opened in the coming years by Meta, Facebook’s parent company. Meta will receive up to $1.8 billion in tax write-offs for the facility.

Speaking to reporters, Lucas made clear that the tax incentives were just an initial down payment, saying, “To our friends at Meta and anybody else in the business community watching: our help doesn’t stop now. We were happy to vote in all the approvals. … But the state of Missouri, the City of Kansas City—we’re still here to work with you along the way.”

The IUPAT is part of the AFL-CIO, an institution deeply integrated into the Democratic Party. The AFL-CIO, through its affiliated unions, has actively sought to prevent workers from winning substantial wage increases amid historic inflation. Just last month, the United Steelworkers forced through a national agreement past the opposition of oil and petrochemical workers, with USW President Tom Conway boasting that it was a “responsible contract” that does not add to “inflationary pressures.”

In the construction industry, the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Union (NWCU) rammed through a concessions agreement in Washington last October with inadequate wage increases, despite widespread opposition among carpenters. The workers had previously voted down four tentative agreements brought back by the NWCU. After the union felt compelled to authorize a strike, it did everything it could to limit its impact, calling out just 2,000 of 12,000 carpenters.

To win their demands for major improvements to wages and working conditions, striking construction workers must take the struggle into their own hands, through the formation of rank-and-file strike committees. Such committees will be able to democratically formulate demands based on the needs of all workers and provide a means to connect with workers throughout the region—including Ford and General Motors autoworkers—and more broadly in a struggle for higher wages and safe working conditions.

 

USA: Wasting taxpayers’ money on Iron Dumb

April 18, 2022 - 10:14 AM News Code : 1248986 Source : Tehran TimesLink: 

How many times have we heard the sentence “the U.S. government is on the verge of shutdown?” Tons of times, we dare say From the 2008 economic crisis in Obama’s tenure –which was entirely George W. Bush’s fault!- to a wobbling Joe Biden who shakes hands with air after his speeches.

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Teetering on its feet like a drunk man due to the unprecedented inflation rate, why does the U.S. want to fund Israeli defense program?

How many times have we heard the sentence “the U.S. government is on the verge of shutdown?” Tons of times, we dare say From the 2008 economic crisis in Obama’s tenure –which was entirely George W. Bush’s fault!- to a wobbling Joe Biden who shakes hands with air after his speeches.

The annual inflation rate in the United States increased to 8.5 percent in March 2022, the highest since December 1981, up from 7.9 percent in February and exceeding market expectations of 8.4 percent. As a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, energy costs jumped by 32%, with gasoline (48%) and fuel oil (70.1%) rising the most. In addition, food prices increased 8.8 percent, the largest since May 1981. Inflation also increased for housing (5 percent compared. 4.7 percent in February) and new automobiles (12.5% vs. 12.4%), but decreased for used cars and trucks (35.3 percent vs 41.2 percent).

The young generation of the United States are struggling with the highest inflation rate they have ever witnessed, yet, the United States continues to spend millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money on funding the Israeli regime’s military programs.

U.S. funding Israeli defense programs is not new to the people of the United States, but this time, with an unstable president in office, and a group of nitwits in Congress, things are getting much more convoluted.

The Tehran Times has learned that the U.S. Congress will be approving a $500 million bill to further invest in Israel’s Missile Defense Program.

According to Tehran Times’ well-informed sources, the 500-million-dollar aid will be spent in two phases. Phase one will be the procurement of various system components for Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow Weapon, and phase two will be the Research and Development, Testing, and Evaluation. A good 300 million dollars is allocated to this part alone.

Over the past decade, the U.S. Congress has allocated 2 billion dollars to the development of Israel’s defense program. The taxpayers’ money that could have made their life all the more easier. However, earlier this year, the Congress decided to go down the drain and approved an additional $1 billion to replenish Iron Dome after the May Gaza war.

American politicians are on the false belief that the U.S.-Israeli military cooperation is a critical investment that can provide security and stability in the West Asian region. The belief is widely misled from the reality, for two main reasons. One, with the heavy – and we mean truly “heavy”- investments of the U.S. in Israeli military program so far, the so-called Iron Dome has turned into an Iron Dumb, full of holes! Hamas has been able to penetrate into the defense system so many times that it is barely a defense system anymore.

Two, splashing money like this on garbage like Iron Dome will increase discontent among the American public opinion, already teetering with the worst economic situation in their lives.

According to a CNBC report, quoting Bankrate, conducted in December 2021, 26% of the Americans believe their financial situation will get worse in 2022 and 42% believe it will stay about the same.

Inflation is cited as the most significant impediment to improving financial situations by 70% of those who expect their financial status to worsen, and by 44% of those who feel their financial situation will remain the same.

According to the CNBC + Acorns Invest in You study, sponsored by Momentive, if price pressure remains, more than half of respondents say they will cut back on dining out expenditure and may consider further reductions. The study of roughly 4,000 adults was conducted online on March 23-24.

Extend your helping hand to your people, not your fake friends!

‘We are fighting the system’: Haiti lawyers taking rape to the courts


In a society riven with poverty and where armed gangs use sexual violence as a means of control, three women are working for justice

Open sewers run through the Cite Soleil district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Sexual violence in the country has increased significantly since the 2010 earthquake. 

Photograph: Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Sophie Cousins in Port-au-Prince
Mon 18 Apr 2022 

Every morning, three lawyers navigate the gang-ridden, treacherous roads of Port-au-Prince to get to work. Of the women’s two priorities of the day this is the first: to get to and from the office safely. The second is fighting Haiti’s legal system from inside, trying to win justice for women who have been raped.

Sexual violence linked to armed gangs in Haiti is not new but the situation has significantly deteriorated since the assassination of the president last year, which has left the country in a power vacuum.


The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) in Haiti’s capital, a human rights law organisation, was set up in the wake of the dramatic rise in sexual attacks predominantly on women in the displacement camps set up after the 2010 earthquake.

The lawyers – Derolian, Marie Kattia Dorestant-Lefruy and Gladys Thermezi – help victims through the legal process, from lodging a statement at the police station to preparing the case and representing them at trial – if there is one. Of the 528 cases they’ve worked on since the 2010 earthquake, only 10 have gone to trial.

“When you live in a society with a lot of problems, women and girls always suffer. In such a situation, gangs use women as weapons of war to get revenge, to show what they’re capable of,” saysAbigail Derolian.

“We’re not a country that promotes human rights, particularly women’s rights. Women don’t know that they can live with dignity, that they can get justice. We have a lot of women who are raped, and we know that the majority remain silent because they’re afraid.”

An assessment of Haiti by the UN high commission for human rights in 2021 found gang-related sexual violence was increasing. “Rape was used as a weapon to humiliate, terrorise and reinforce the control of gang members over local populations. In some areas, the feeling of impunity is so pervasive that rapes have been perpetrated in broad daylight,” it said.

Karlyn*, who is being supported by BAI, was attacked during the day by two men.

“I had to resign from my work at a garment factory and move to the countryside because gang members were looking for me,” she says. Her case is waiting at the state prosecutor’s office.

In its latest figures published last March, the UN estimates 23% of married or cohabiting women will be sexually or physically abused by a partner in their lifetime. Last year, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the number of recorded cases in Haiti increased by 377% in 2020.

BAI, in partnership with the US-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, offersmuch-needed support.


Protests in Sudan after alleged gang-rape of young woman by security forces

Women are referred from organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières, who provide initial medical care after an attack, and from an extensive network of community support workers.

“We have an obstacle in getting justice and that is the judicial system. We are fighting the system. We work double the hours to make sure the victim won’t be discouraged. We don’t stop investigating,” Thermezi says.

Corruption, stigma and victim-blaming is rife, the lawyers say. Bribery is all too common in the courts while judges will ask questions such as: “What were you doing out at this hour of the day? What were you wearing? Isn’t this a love affair?”

The BAI lawyers remain steadfast. “I come from a poor, voiceless family and I’m happy to defend women who don’t have anyone to speak out for them and who don’t have money for legal services,” says Dorestant-Lefruy.

“We face a lot of obstacles in getting justice for women … but the work gives me the strength and courage to speak up for these women.”

* Name has been changed

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As Kenyans farm in forests, incomes rise and deforestation falls

by Benson Rioba | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Monday, 18 April 2022 01:00 GMT

Forest authorities say Kenya's scheme to let farmers grow crops in forests has slashed illegal logging, as the country aims for 10% of its land in trees by the end of the year

Kenya wants to increase tree cover from 7% to 10% by end of year


Farmers in forests make extra income, drive off illegal loggers


Some farmers are frustrated by limits on what they can grow

LARI, Kenya, April 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Surrounded by tall, spindly trees in western Kenya's Uplands Forest, Margret Njoki and her daughter dig up a row of potatoes, their hands moving rhythmically in time with one another.

Along with the plot Njoki cultivates at home in the nearby town of Lari, this quarter acre (0.1 hectare) of forest land she leases from the government means she can double her yield of kale and potatoes.

In return, the 41-year-old produce seller agreed to plant and raise the trees growing among her crops, in a national scheme designed to curb illegal logging while giving farmers living near protected forests an alternative source of income.

"If it were not for this land I was allocated, I would be seriously struggling to raise my three kids since I am single," said Njoki, adding she no longer has to buy vegetables from other farmers to stock her market stand.

"Now I can comfortably pay my children's school fees and I sell vegetables from my own farm, thus increasing my profits."

While other countries fight to keep farmers out of their forests, Kenya sees small-scale farming on forest land as an essential pillar of its commitment to have 10% of the country covered with trees by the end of this year.

Just over 7% of Kenya is forested, and in its budget, announced on April 7, the government said it would allocate 10 billion Kenyan shillings ($87 million) for forest conservation over the next financial year.

Farmers working in forests act as a deterrent to illegal loggers, say forest authorities. And because communities make extra money from their forest plots, they are less likely to collude with loggers targeting protected indigenous trees.

As a result, some authorities say they have seen a big drop in illegal logging - including Isaac Waweru, forest station manager for Uplands Forest, who said unauthorised tree-cutting in the Lari area has fallen by half over the past five years.

"Most of the logging was done in collaboration with communities living near the forest, since they knew the terrain well," he said.

"But when we give community members a piece of fertile forest (to cultivate), they can't risk being thrown out by aiding illegal logging. In fact, they have turned into defenders of the forest."

Scientists say protecting forests is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to curb climate change because trees suck from the atmosphere carbon dioxide, the main gas heating up the planet.

But some critics of Kenya's community conservation scheme say limitations on what can be grown in forests and for how long makes the programme unfair to farmers.

The government also needs to go further in educating farmers on the benefits of tree conservation, so they buy into the programme fully, said Dominic Walubengo, director of the Nairobi-based Forest Action Network (FAN).

"Before giving farmers land to till, they should be sensitised on why they are being allowed into the forest, why is it important for them to adequately tend to the trees, to give them a sense of belonging," he said.
TREES FOR TIMBER

According to the most recent government estimates, Kenya loses about 12,000 of its 4.6 million hectares of forest land each year due to a combination of rising demand for wood fuel and charcoal, a growing population, the spread of infrastructure and the conversion of forest into commercial farmland.

Kenyan farmers have been able to lease land in forests since the Plantation Establishment and Livelihood Improvement Scheme, commonly known as PELIS, was introduced under the 2005 Forest Act.

But the programme only started gaining ground after 2016, when an updated forest act gave the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) more leeway to encourage communities to use forests sustainably, said Julius Kamau, Kenya's chief conservator of forests.

For 500 shillings a year - a tenth of what it usually costs to lease farmland - farmers get a parcel of forest to use for growing crops, keeping bees or dairy animals, and other agricultural activities.

Under the deal, farmers also help raise trees, mainly exotic fast-growing species such as cypress and pine, from seedlings provided by the KFS, which later sells the trees for timber.

After three to five years, when the trees have reached maturity, farmers either leave the PELIS programme or move to a new patch of forest cleared by the KFS to cultivate and replant.

Nganga Muigai, another farmer living in Lari, has been growing potatoes and kale inside Uplands Forest for the past two years, and said he has heard of fewer incidents of illegal logging and muggings in the area in recent years.

"This is because the forest is so busy," he said, pointing to three women walking behind a donkey pulling a cart filled with sacks of grass.
CROP LIMITATIONS

There are no public records to show how much forest land is currently being farmed under PELIS, and the KFS did not respond to requests for that information.

A 2018 parliamentary report noted that the KFS had by then allocated more than 23,600 hectares of forest to the programme.

Assistant chief conservator of forests Jerome Mwanzia said the KFS plans to allocate an additional 10,000 hectares between now and 2028.

Walubengo, the conservationist, said schemes like PELIS will have limited success unless the government does more to show communities the benefits of preserving forests.

He has heard of farmers who are reluctant to move to a different plot uprooting mature crops and leaving only young plants, so it looks like they need more time to harvest.

That results in their crops competing with the growing trees for nutrients, he explained.

Waweru at the Uplands Forest Station said the contracts signed give the KFS the power to repossess the land if a farmer tries to stay past the agreed time-frame.

In Lari, farmer Muigai said the programme could do more to lift up livelihoods if it focused as much on the needs of farmers as it does on protecting trees.

He pointed to the rule that says farmers can cultivate only short-term, low crops, because taller crops, like maize, can block sunlight from growing tree seedlings and interfere with their roots.

While he has benefited from PELIS, "if the KFS would be kind enough to let us grow maize for food and animal fodder, we would be grateful," he added.

Related stories:

Armed with phones and seeds, jobless Kenyans tackle illegal logging

Kenyan villagers tap traditional wisdom to save native trees and water

'We have history': Saving Kenya's last sacred forests

($1 = 115.2000 Kenyan shillings)

(Reporting by Benson Rioba, Editing by Jumana Farouky and Megan Rowling. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

French election: What exactly is Marine Le Pen's stance on Russia and Vladimir Putin?

By Alasdair Sandford • Updated: 18/04/2022 - 08:26

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks to French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 24, 2017.

- Copyright Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Marine Le Pen's comments in an interview in early February this year were particularly forthright: "I do not believe AT ALL that Russia wishes to invade Ukraine," she said.

The remarks were also rather unfortunate, given that barely a fortnight later Vladimir Putin sent thousands of troops, amassed on Ukraine's border, into the country.

Russian bombardments have since flattened towns and cities, and there have been multiple reports of Russian soldiers murdering, torturing and raping civilians.

The challenger to Emmanuel Macron in next Sunday's French presidential run-off said recently that she finds critics' accusations that she is too close to Moscow tantamount to a "particularly unfair trial", insisting she has only ever "defended France's interests".

However, the candidate from the far-right has openly expressed her admiration for the Russian leader in the past and has consistently defended Moscow's foreign policy.

France election: Five reasons why the Macron-Le Pen face-off will look very different this time

2017: 'I support Putin's policies'

In an unprecedented move, in March 2017 the Russian president met with a candidate for the French presidency in Moscow in the run-up to the race for the Elysée that spring.

The meeting between Vladimir Putin and Marine Le Pen at the Kremlin reignited fears of Russian support for far-right groups in Europe.

The then "Front National" candidate had already sought party financing from a Russian bank — the loan is still being paid off — and repeated her intention to lift quickly EU sanctions imposed on Russia following its annexation of Crimea.

In an interview with the BBC, Le Pen tied her political colours firmly to the mast, citing as her inspirations the newly elected US president as well as the Russian leader.

"The big political lines that I stand up for are the big lines which Mr Trump stands up for, which Mr Putin stands up for," she said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 24, 2017.

Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File

Le Pen also blamed tensions with the West firmly on the US and NATO, which she accused of arming countries on Russia's border.

"Ukraine is part of Russia's sphere of influence, it's a fact," she said. "If you're trying to say that Russia poses a military danger to European countries, I think you're mistaken in your analysis."

France should leave NATO's allied command, she argued. "NATO was created precisely to fight the USSR. Today there is no USSR."

Russia, Le Pen went on, didn't "deserve to be treated with prejudice", as it "hasn't led any campaigns against European countries, or against the US".

US intelligence and an official investigation concluded that Russia interfered with the 2016 US presidential election with the aim of boosting Trump's candidacy. For several years Moscow has also been accused of interference and spreading disinformation in European elections.

"Russia is going broadly in the right direction," Le Pen replied in the 2017 interview when asked whether Putin had done more harm than good, citing his intervention in Syria which was "positive for the security of the world".

"What I notice is that Vladimir Putin's government must at least please the Russians enough to be re-elected regularly in the country's elections," she said.

Elections in Russia since Putin came to power have regularly been criticised by human rights groups and international organisations as being neither free nor fair, while prominent opponents of the president have been barred from standing.

France election: Macron and Le Pen battle for two separate visions of country's role within Europe
'There was no invasion of Crimea!'

The previous month, in February 2017, Marine Le Pen was asked about her admiration and respect for Vladimir Putin.

"The Russian nation is a great nation, it has made its choice whether we like it or not. Is Russia a danger to France? Reply: no. Should Russia be an ally for France? Reply: yes. Same thing for the United States," she told CNN.

Le Pen clashed with interviewer Christiane Amanpour over Ukraine's "Maidan Revolution" and Russia's subsequent annexation of Crimea in 2014.

"There was a coup d'état in Ukraine," she said. "There was an agreement between different nations, and the next day, this agreement was broken, and a certain number of people took power."

The Maidan protests followed President Yanukovych's sudden decision to ditch a political and free trade agreement with the European Union approved by Ukraine's parliament, under pressure from Moscow. After deadly protests in February 2014, the president fled the country and was formally removed from office by the parliament.

Russia responded by sending forces to annex Crimea, and backing separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"But there was no invasion of Crimea! Listen, you have to stop talking nonsense!" Le Pen told CNN in the 2017 interview.

"Crimea was Russian. Ok? Crimea has always been Russian... It was given by the Soviet Union... The population feels Russian. The population is Russian. The population decided by a crushing majority to return to Russia's bosom."

The 2014 referendum in Crimea, when people voted to rejoin Russia, was not recognised by most countries. A UN General Assembly resolution was passed by a large majority declaring the vote invalid and affirming Ukraine's territorial integrity.

2022: 'Russia has no desire to invade Ukraine'

In February this year, Marine Le Pen was interviewed again by the BBC, at a time when Russia had spent months building up troops on Ukraine's borders. US intelligence and President Joe Biden had warned months earlier that Putin intended to invade.

But the presidential candidate, once again running for the Elysée under the "Rassemblement National" ("National Rally") banner, repeated that she wanted to see Russia as an ally of France.

As in 2017, she blamed NATO military pressure for the tensions between Moscow and the West.

"Today the United States is pushing Ukraine to join NATO with the aim of deploying armed forces on Russia's border, so the Russians are retaliating, putting forces at their borders with Ukraine," she said.

"I defend the sovereignty of all countries, therefore I defend the sovereignty of Ukraine. But... I do not believe AT ALL that Russia wishes to invade Ukraine," Le Pen said, when pushed on how she would respond if Moscow did send in the troops.

She would not be drawn on whether sanctions should be imposed in the event of an invasion. "I don't think Russia has the least desire to invade Ukraine. But if it did so, naturally I would defend Ukraine's sovereignty, just as I defend the sovereignty of France," she repeated.
'An alliance with Russia'

Russia is barely mentioned in the 13-page section on defence that forms part of Marine Le Pen's presidential manifesto.

The candidate confirms that taking France out of NATO's military command structure would be a priority. A new relationship would be sought with the United States which "does not always behave like an ally of France". Her government would end joint weapons programmes with Germany.

In contrast, Moscow is once more considered an important future partner.

"An alliance will be sought with Russia on some essential topics: European security which can't exist without her, the struggle against terrorism which she has assured with more consistency than all other powers, the convergence of the treatment of big regional dossiers affecting France (eastern Mediterranean, North and central Africa, the Gulf/Middle East and Asia in particular)," the manifesto says.

"Le Pen does not specify what military threats France faces, and barely mentions Russia. This perhaps reflects the ambiguity of her relationship with Vladimir Putin," says a report for the think-tank the Centre for European Reform (CER) on what a Le Pen presidency would mean for Europe.

French election: Thousands protest against far-right ahead of presidential run-off
What has Le Pen said since Russia invaded Ukraine?

There is little doubt that Marine Le Pen was somewhat wrong-footed by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

This month she has modified some of her remarks on Vladimir Putin, renouncing any military "entente" with Moscow.

On April 4 she talked of "war crimes" in Ukraine after the discovery of the bodies of hundreds of civilians in the Kyiv region. But at the end of March, Le Pen refused to class Putin as a "war criminal" because "you don't negotiate peace by insulting one of the two parties".

The far-right candidate remains opposed to an energy embargo against Moscow, because of the probable impact on French people's consumer spending power.

Speaking on France's Europe 1 radio a few days before the first round of the election, she criticised EU sanctions — which included a ban on Russian coal imports — as being designed to "protect the interests of the financial markets and the real profiteers from the war". "All these sanctions have the result of hitting our companies and private individuals," she added.

The presidential challenger has said she is ready to deliver "elements of defence" to Ukraine — understood to mean non-lethal arms — but not heavy weapons which she argues would make France a "co-belligerent" on the side of Ukraine against Russia.

Outlining her diplomatic strategy on April 13, she called for a "strategic rapprochement" between NATO and Russia, once the war in Ukraine was "resolved by a peace treaty".

"Le Pen and her party colleagues in the European Parliament have consistently opposed sanctions on Russia. During this year’s campaign, even though she has criticised the invasion of Ukraine, she has also said that Putin could become an ally of France again if the war ended," says the CER report.

"If Le Pen were elected, there is a risk that she would veto sanctions or only apply them weakly, and France’s relations with most of its allies and partners would be shaken."

Additional sources • AFP

Tunisia: inspection of sunken fuel ship eases fears of environmental disaster

Divers report no leaks were detected from loaded vessel lying off the coast of Gabes city

The National
Apr 18, 2022

Inflatable barriers at the port of Gabes. Reuters

Divers have not discovered any leaks from a tanker loaded with 750 tonnes of fuel that sank off south-east Tunisia, raising hopes that it can be salvaged before causing an environmental disaster.

The Equatorial Guinea-flagged Xelo, which sank on Saturday in the Gulf of Gabes, has settled on its side at a depth of almost 20 metres, the Environment Ministry said.

“No leak has been detected,” it said after divers inspected the ship on Sunday.

Divers were accompanied by the ship's captain and engineer, said Mohamed Karray, spokesman for a court in Gabes city that is investigating the sinking.

The ship was travelling from the Egyptian port of Damietta to Malta when it requested permission to enter Tunisian waters on Friday evening because of bad weather.


Its seven-member crew were rescued from the ship on Saturday, after it began taking on water.

Transport Minister Rabie Majidi said rescue workers had checked during the operation that the ship's valves for loading and unloading its diesel cargo were closed. Divers ensured they were sealed and intact, he said.

The situation is not dangerous, the outlook is positive, the ship is stable because luckily it ran aground on sand
Tunisian Transport Minister Rabie Majidi

“The situation is not dangerous, the outlook is positive, the ship is stable because luckily it ran aground on sand,” Mr Majidi said on Sunday.

He said the priority was to pump out the diesel and prevent any spillage or pollution.

The Xelo is 58 metres long and nine metres wide, according to ship monitoring website vesseltracker.com.


Italy is sending a specialist ship for cleaning up marine pollution, along with a team of divers to assist the operation, an Italian official said.
READ MORE
Soaking up the sun, surf and sulphur at Tunisia's 'last free, wild place'

Protective booms have been placed around the ship to contain any spillage.

Tunisian Environment Minister Leila Chikhaoui visited the port of Gabes on Saturday to assess the situation.

Officials are investigating the itinerary of the tanker, which reportedly has Turkish and Libyan owners.

The Tunisia branch of the World Wildlife Fund has expressed concern about another “environmental catastrophe” in the region, an important fishing zone.

It said the area where the ship went down was a fishing ground for 600 fishermen.

The environmental group said the wider Gulf of Gabes provided employment for about 34,000 fishermen, who had been contending with chemical pollution for decades.

Russian Orthodox leader backs war in Ukraine, divides faith

Patriarch Kirill has angered many priests by echoing the language Vladimir Putin uses to justify the Ukraine invasion


By Jeanne Whalen

He leads his flock from a soaring, gilded cathedral built to celebrate Russia’s victory over Napoleon, where week after week the powerful head of the Russian Orthodox Church is working to ensure that the faithful are all in on their country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Whether warning about the “external enemies” attempting to divide the “united people” of Russia and Ukraine, or very publicly blessing the generals leading soldiers in the field, Patriarch Kirill has become one of the war’s most prominent backers. His sermons echo, and in some cases even supply, the rhetoric that President Vladimir Putin has used to justify the assault on cities and civilians.

“Let this image inspire young soldiers who take the oath, who embark on the path of defending the fatherland,” Kirill intoned as he gave a gilded icon to Gen. Viktor Zolotov during a service at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in mid-March. The precious gift, the general responded, would protect the troops in their battles against Ukrainian “Nazis.”

“Any war has to have guns and ideas,” said Cyril Hovorun, professor of ecclesiology, international relations and ecumenism at University College Stockholm. “In this war the Kremlin has provided the guns, and I believe the church is providing the ideas.”

In the process, Kirill has caused deep schisms in the global Orthodox Church, with priests in Ukraine, elsewhere in Europe and the United States condemning his support. Even dozens of lower-ranking clergy in Russia have broken with the 75-year-old patriarch, adding their signatures to an open letter decrying the invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, center, and Patriarch Kirill visit the newly constructed Orthodox cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces in June 2020. (Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik/Kremlin/Reuters)

Orthodox priests in Ukraine have gone much further. In an open appeal last week, more than 320 of them accused the patriarch of preaching “heresy” and asked global church leaders to bring him before a tribunal to decide whether he should be deposed.

“Kirill committed moral crimes by blessing the war against Ukraine and fully supporting the aggressive actions of Russian troops on the Ukrainian territory,” they wrote. “It is impossible for us to remain in any form of canonical submission to the Patriarch of Moscow.”

The patriarch and his communications office did not respond to The Washington Post’s requests for comment.

The online petition called Kirill a leading author of “one of the ideological foundations of this war,” a doctrine known as “Russkiy mir,” or “Russian world.” The concept — a constant theme in the patriarch’s sermons — posits that the people of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are one united civilization flowing from the 10th-century baptism of the Slavic tribes in Kyiv, which was then the center of lands known as Rus.

To some ears this dogma might sound peaceful and inclusive, but critics say Russia is using it to reassert dominance over territory it controlled during the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Putin has embraced the doctrine in recent speeches, claiming that Ukraine has never really existed as a separate state and has historically belonged to lands led by Russia. Historians say that is flat-out wrong.

Signs of the church’s alignment with the state were on view at a service in northwest Moscow several days ago. Boxes decorated with Orthodox crosses requested donations for refugees from two regions of eastern Ukraine where Moscow has baselessly claimed that people are fleeing Ukrainian state oppression.

Not everyone at the service was buying the official church line.

“What is happening is a disaster for Russia and Ukraine,” said Olga, a 42-year-old therapist attending the service, who was too fearful to give her full name. “I realize that our silence is awful, but in fact many Russians are strongly against this war.”

She worries about the many repercussions: “Now we have to live with this for the rest of our lives, and probably even our grandchildren will be hated by Ukrainians. Because we are aggressors in the eyes of the whole world.”

The Orthodox Church was a dominant force in Russian life until the Bolshevik Revolution, when the Soviets heavily restricted the faith and purged many priests. A mini-revival of religion was allowed during World War II to inspire a “patriotic impulse” in society, explained Andrey Kordochkin, a Russian Orthodox priest in Madrid. But the state kept tight control.

Russia’s post-Soviet constitution restored religious freedom, sparking an upsurge in believers, with the share of adults identifying as Orthodox Christian rising from 31 percent to 72 percent between 1991 and 2008, according to the Pew Research Center. Only about 7 percent regularly attended church as of 2008, however.

The end of the Soviet period left an “ideological hole” in Russian society, a void that Hovorun said Kirill rushed to fill as he rose through the church ranks and became patriarch in 2009. He turned to the Russkiy mir doctrine, as did Putin five years later when he annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Kirill, an ally who once praised the early years of Putin’s rule as “a miracle of God,” did not speak out against the annexation.

His sermons since the war began in late February have repeatedly cast foreign enemies, not Russia, as the aggressors attempting to divide neighboring countries that he describes as “one people.”

“God forbid that the current political situation in fraternal Ukraine, which is close to us, should be aimed at ensuring that the evil forces that have always fought against the unity of Rus and the Russian Church gain the upper hand,” Kirill said days after Russia invaded.

Several days later, one of Kirill’s lieutenants circulated a letter asking churches to read a prayer beseeching God to “overthrow the plans” of “strangers speaking foreign tongues” who want to fight Russia.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill presides over a mass marking the holiday of the Annunciation on April 7. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images)

On April 3, Kirill gave a sermon at a cathedral on the outskirts of Moscow built for the armed forces. Its metal steps are made from German weaponry melted down after World War II. Its mosaics depict battle scenes.

“Most of the countries of the world are now under the colossal influence of one force, which today, unfortunately, opposes the force of our people,” Kirill said, apparently referring to the United States. “All of our people today must wake up, wake up, understand that a special time has come, on which the historical fate of our people may depend.”

Some Russian priests have adopted similar or even harsher language in their sermons, while bishops have pressured clergy not to openly oppose the war, according to religious scholar Sergei Chapnin, a former editor of the Moscow Patriarchate publishing house and now a senior fellow at the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University.

“Dozens of my friends in Russia, priests, they are saying, ‘We are trying to talk to our parishioners to say you cannot trust state propaganda.’ But this is private talks, not public, because of this pressure,” Chapnin said.

Still, some priests have spoken out, including one in the Russian city of Ryazan who was fired for his antiwar posts on social media. Another near the city of Kostroma was fined by authorities for his public dissent.

A backlash has also erupted in numerous parishes outside Russia that the Moscow patriarch oversees. One Russian Orthodox church in Amsterdam severed its ties last month and is seeking to join the branch of Orthodoxy based in Istanbul.

The head of the Orthodox Church in Lithuania, which is part of the Moscow Patriarchate, issued a bold statement against the war and said that Lithuanian believers would seek “greater church independence.”

“We strongly condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine and pray to God for its speedy end,” Metropolitan Innokenty of Vilna and Lithuania said in a statement. “As you have probably already noticed, Patriarch Kirill and I have different political views and perceptions of current events. His political statements about the war in Ukraine are his personal opinion.”

These ruptures are almost certain to grow if Kirill continues to defend the fighting. Many in the church will be listening for his words on April 24 as Orthodox Easter is celebrated.

Andriy Pinchuk, one of the Ukrainian priests calling for Kirill to be brought before a tribunal, hopes the patriarch will be stripped of his position. Even better, though not particularly feasible, Pinchuk allowed, would be for “Patriarch Kirill to be excommunicated from the church and anathema declared to him.”

David L. Stern in Ukraine and Mary Ilyushina in Latvia contributed to this report.