In parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in Europe, Ukrainian refugees are being recruited under the guise of “spiritual support” or “assistance.”
This is stated in a report by LIGA.net, whose correspondent visited the Church of St. Nicholas, an archiepiscopal parish of the Russian Orthodox Church in Brussels.
“While standing in line for confession, I felt a fixed gaze upon me from a bald man dressed in black. He stood out from the general background of the parishioners. Businesslike, overly confident, with a cold, scanning look. He was not praying, only observing attentively, fixing his eyes on each new face. This man resembled a ‘watcher’ whose task is to record everyone who crosses the threshold,” she shared.
As Ringo Ringvee, adviser to the Department of Religious Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior of Estonia, told LIGA.net, this is the formation of a database for future recruitment and the creation of a “positive environment.”
“The message is always the same: you have arrived in a new country, and here we help you,” he explained.
However, as Ringvee noted, in Estonia over the years no real evidence or figures have been seen that would confirm such assistance from structures of the Moscow Patriarchate.
A source in the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine confirmed to LIGA.net that this is how the control system operates in Russian Orthodox churches. In search of spiritual support, it is enough for Ukrainians to attend services two or three times, and they will inevitably be noticed. A priest or a priest’s wife will be sent to them in order to extract contacts or social media details under the pretext of offering support to those who fled the war or providing informational mailings.
As the article states, the Church is one of the institutions that helps Ukrainian refugees in Europe preserve a part of their native traditions and receive spiritual support. However, behind the facade of emotional assistance there are often cells of the Russian Orthodox Church which, funded by Russian intelligence and oligarch Vadim Novinsky, continue to work on shaping a pro-Russian electorate in the very heart of Europe.
As LF previously reported, Vadim Novinsky is a Ukrainian oligarch of Russian origin and a former deputy from pro-Russian forces. According to experts, for decades in Ukraine he was known as a key infrastructural and financial element of the Russian Orthodox Church’s influence in the Ukrainian political and public space. Novinsky maintained close ties with Moscow and personally with Patriarch Kirill, which, according to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, made him one of the informal curators of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Due to suspicions of facilitating Russian influence, high treason, and incitement of religious hostility, sanctions have been imposed against him, and he is currently outside Ukraine.
