On December 5, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II died. The enthronement of Alexy II took place on June 10, 1990. He was the fifteenth primate of the Russian Orthodox Church since the establishment of the patriarchate. See biographical note . Sources Patriarch Alexy II dies // Interfax-religion. 2008. December 5.

On December 4, a picket was held in Moscow against the creation of Orthodox folk squads. The organizer of the action was the libertarian movement "Free Radicals". About 10 people held posters: “No to the Orthodox Taliban,” “No to legalized pogroms,” “We are against the squads of religious fanatics.” The picketers demanded compliance with the constitutional principle of secularism of the state.

On September 9, 2008, a criminal case was opened in St. Petersburg under Part 1 of Section 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement of hatred or enmity) against A.V. Andreev, who signed the article by Konstantin Chernyaev “Here is a real candidate!”, then published in No. 27 (841) of the newspaper “New Petersburg” dated June 21, 2008. November 30, 2008, specialist of the “Center for Forensic Expertise of the North-Western District” Kiryukhina E.V.

On November 29, 2008, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, two conscripts from North Ossetia, Pavel Sadovnich and Sergey Karpov, jumped out of a train on the Mariinsk-Pridmetkino stage. Pavel Sadovnich fell to his death, and Sergey Karpov received a concussion, many bruises and was hospitalized. The Ossetians reportedly taunted two Russian conscripts and forced them to jump off the train.

The nuns of the St. Tikhon Vvedensky Convent have long been seeking the transfer of a complex of monastic buildings. So far, the monastery occupies only one temple - the VMTs. Catherine, but the documents for its transfer to the church have not yet been formalized.

On December 5, 2008, the Basmanny Court of Moscow recognized that there is no extremism in Andrey Piontkovsky's series of articles "Unloved Country". The prosecutor's office withdrew its claim to recognize them as extremist. This decision was made thanks to the results of an examination that found no signs of extremism in these articles. Sources The court removed the charge of extremism from Piontkovsky // Grani.ru. 2008. December 5.