Four wooden crosses were chopped down by unknown vandals in Russia over the weekend, in what the Orthodox Church claimed was a campaign to sow religious hatred. Unknown men were seen chopping down a crucifix in the northern Arkhangelsk region on the night of August 25, while another three crosses were found cut to pieces near Chelyabinsk in the southern Urals. No-one has claimed responsibility for the action, which comes just days after activists from Ukrainian women's rights group Femen cut down a crucifix in the capital Kyiv, in a show of solidarity with three members of the all-female punk group >>>

Four Orthodox Christian crosses have been chopped down in different parts of Russia. The incidents come after the Femen movement attacked a cross in Kyiv to protest the sentence of the punk band Pussy Riot, who received two years in prison. Three crosses have been taken down in the Urals’ Chelyabinsk Region, and one in the Archangelsk Region, northern Russia. By the time police arrived at the scenes the vandals had already left. Authorities have launched an investigation into both cases. The Arkhangelsk cross was erected in the memory of the victims of political repressions, said a local >>>