KENAI, Alaska — A Russian Orthodox church in Kenai is looking to install a new fire-suppressing system to protect the religious art and historical artifacts that reside next to dozens of candles.

A procession carries St. Olga's casket from the old Orthodox cemetery to the new St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church as part of her glorification ceremony in Kwethluk on June 19, 2025.

Long suspected as a tool of Russian soft power, the Russian Orthodox Church has openly embraced the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine. That’s accelerated efforts in a growing number of countries to ...

The law, said Maksym Vasin, director for international advocacy and research at the Institute for Religious Freedom in Kyiv, is meant to protect Orthodox believers in Ukraine from Russian propaganda.

In 2019, Ukraine's Orthodox Church was granted independence from the Russian Orthodox Church by the ecumenical patriarch in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). It caused an uproar in Moscow.

FILE – Pope Francis, left, reaches to embrace Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill after signing a joint declaration at the Jose Marti International airport in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016.