Given the institution’s history, all caution is insufficient, European governments and intelligence services say. The Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, whose last two spiritual leaders, the patriarchs Alexei II y Kirillcarried out activities in favor of Soviet espionage during the Cold War of the 20th century under the code names of ‘Drozdov‘ y ‘Mijailo‘, has about 150 parishes on EU territory.
In some of these places, controversy is served. Citizen and journalistic investigations have identified, with a high degree of probabilitythat some temples have served as meeting centers for agents involved in destabilization operations, while in other cases they are located in the proximity to military installations sensitive, both from the countries concerned and from NATO, suspecting that espionage work could be carried out inside. “It is a credible accusation, although it has not been proven; it must be investigated,” he assures EL PERIÓDICO Ksenia LuchenkoRussian journalist specializing in religious issues.
Currently, in the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) of Moscow obedience there is no room for dissent. Its main ecclesiastical seats on the European continent are “under the strict political control of the Patriarchate”, whether the Dormition Cathedralin the London neighborhood of Knightsbridge, or the cathedral of the holy trinity in Paris, or others, he tells this newspaper Lucy Ashjournalist specialized in the former USSR and author of the book ‘The staff and the cross, the church of Russia from the pagans to Putin’. In them, this expert continues, transmit “seamlessly” Russian narratives regarding the war and propaganda of the conflict is made. Below are some cases that have been subject to research y journalistic controversies.
The Swedish town of Vasteras, a hundred kilometers from Stockholm, is experiencing the most mediatized case of a temple attached to the IOR suspected of being dedicated to spy tasks and surveillance in Europe. The so-called Karzan Icon Church It was consecrated in 2023 and is located just 300 metros from the local airport, separated from the facilities by discreet trees. The airfield, which was used as a military base by the Swedish Army until the 70s and which is currently dedicated to flights low costafter Sweden’s entry into NATO, it exercises functions of strategic military center, where military exercises of the Atlantic Alliance are held. Its take-off runway, one of the widest and longest in the country, allows it to accommodate big airplanes load.
Numerous irregularities have surrounded the opening of the Orthodox temple, in particular the lack of respect for the building regulations. Its needle rises to a height of 22 metroswhile she was only authorized to do so 10 metros. The cult center is also located in the vicinity of Lake Malar, a huge waterway connecting the Baltic Sea with central Sweden, and crossed by numerous bridges. During its construction, the Swedish Security Service (SAPO, for its acronym in Swedish) had already warned about the irregularity of having such a temple in the vicinity of a sensitive military installation, and tried to paralyze it.
The authorities of the Czech Republic maintain that the church of Saints Peter and Saint Paul, in the spa of Karlovy Vary, It is an espionage center where meetings of GRU agents, military intelligence, have been held to carry out destabilization activities and hostile actions against EU countries. “It is not a temple in the traditional sense, it is part of the Kremlin machinery,” accused the then Czech Foreign Minister in April 2025, Jan Lipavsky.
After carrying out investigations, the Czech Government ordered the expulsion of the parish priest in 2024 Nikolai Lishchenyukwhich motivated the ecclesiastical authorities in Moscow to begin maneuvers to prevent the church from being subject to sanctions. Ownership of the place was transferred to the Hungarian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church and was placed at the head of it. obispo Hillarionconfidant of Moscow Patriarch Kirill and considered by many to be his number two. This ecclesiastical figure has been accused by his former personal assistant, the subdeacon Georgy Suzuky20, of “improper sexual conduct”, in an investigation published by the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
A long article published by the British newspaper The Telegraph In January he revealed the existence of a network of orthodox nuns originating from Monastery of Saint Elizabeth in Minsk (Belarus), with links to the GRU, Russian military intelligence, which operated in 20 iglesias spread throughout Sweden. Women were dedicated to selling souvenirs in the Scandinavian country, and took advantage of the occasion to praise and glorify the Russian invasion of Ukraine under the alibi of carrying out a humanitarian work. The Swedish authorities assume that the monetary gains What they obtained were sent to the Russian military units fighting in Ukraine.
The nuns had been invited by Mijail Ojarno, parish priest of the town of Täby, belonging to the Church of Sweden, who immediately, as soon as he learned of their activities, ended cooperation with them. “They came every year, borrowed two tables from us, and sold icons and socks.” The Swedish ecclesiastical institution itself had to issue a statement warning of the activities of the nuns, nicknamed by the press the ‘Z nuns’, the letter Z being the symbol of Russian troops in Ukraine.
The father Andrey Kordochkin accumulated almost two decades at the service of the faithful in the cathedral of Santa María Magdalena in Madrid when the war in Ukraine broke out in 2022. He had experienced moments of tension in the past with the ecclesiastical authorities in Moscow, but the start of the conflict caused the definitive break. Victoria Samoilova, a woman I had never seen before, began to make herself noticed at Sunday celebrations, opening channels on social networks for parishioners where she poured large doses of war propaganda in favor of Russia and criticized Western governments and leaders through hoaxes.
In the fall of 2022, he posted on Telegram a petition for signatures against Father Andréi, whom he accused of “anti-Christian activities”, while frequently spreading critical messages towards him and his family. After a first period of suspension, by order of Patriarch Kirill, the religious definitively left Spain and settled in Germany, coming under the religious authority of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Madrid cathedral lost the multinational character, multicultural y multirreligioso which had one day, and became a center only for Russians favorable to Vladimir Putin.
The parish of St. Anne of Novgorod in Trondheim, Norway’s third most populous city, is located less than two kilometers from defense facilities, such as a submarine bunkerand naval portand one air force academy. Unlike what happens in Sweden, the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) has not issued public statements or assessments on the suitability of the temple, but military experts have warned that, thanks to it, parishioners and members of the clergy have an excellent observation post for military movements in the area. Other cases, such as what happened in the strategic island of Vardolocated in the vicinity of the sensitive border between Norway and the Russian Federation and a GLOBUS radar installation, constitute an additional example of the Kremlin’s probable determination to resort to the IOR to collect sensitive information in the territory of its adversaries. The construction of a chapel linked to the Moscow Patriarchate that had been in the works since 2017 was finally canceled. The facility even obtained the authorization of local authorities and even public financing of the Norwegian State.
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