17.05.2006
Russian Intelligence Makes Use of Estonian Orthodox Church
Simon Araloff, AIA European section
http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=863
Estonian authorities are well aware of the use Russian secret services make of the Estonian Orthodox Church. This information, however, is not published due to political considerations. That is the reason why it was not included in the open version of the resent annual report of the Estonian Security Police (KAPO), published last week by the local press…
During the last decade, Russian intelligence has been actively exploiting the infrastructure of the so-called Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Information about this fact was received on condition of strict confidentiality from the official of one of the Baltic States, having relation to his country's security bodies. AIA's source emphasized that the activity in question is not at all a hostile activity towards Estonia, but rather making use of its particular representatives in the interests of the Russian intelligence. According to him, Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate today unites more than 95 per cent of all the Orthodox people in Estonia, which are about 150 thousand persons. Since November 2000, its activity is headed by Metropolitan Korniliy of Tallinn and Estonia (Jakobs Viacheslav), the son of a Tsar Army Colonel. His subordinates often visit Moscow, being in close ties with the External relations section of the Moscow Patriarchate and its unchangeable chief (since November 1989), Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad (Vladimir Gundiaev). According to counterintelligence service of one of the Baltic countries, the latter has a direct link to realization of the "Countrymen Support Program" of the Russian Government. This program is being managed by the "Roszarubejcenter" organization, which is subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A part from Metropolitan Kirill, the Estonian brothers in faith are being actively contacted by the deputy chairman of External relations section of the Moscow Patriarchate, Bishop Mark Egorievsky (Sergey Golovkov, ex-member of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem), and the priest Viktor Zogii. Both of them are suspected in having ties to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).
AIA's source explained that making use of the Russian Orthodox Church for intelligence purposes is a common practice of the Soviet, and now – of the Russian, secret services. In the late 1980s, for example, under the cover of the Russian Orthodox Mission in Jerusalem, there worked Alexander Lomov, the KGB officer who escaped to the West. As for the head of the External relations section of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Kirill, he was repeatedly charged with having close ties with the KGB. In 1992, for instance, the ex-serviceman of this organization, Alexander Shushpanov, told the details of the External relations section and its chief's activity for the sake of the State security. In particular, he told that till the very collapse of the USSR, this section gave an official coverage for the KGB's operative servicemen abroad. Former Shushpanov's colleague, Viktor Preobrazhenski, later testified that the high-ranking positions in the church hierarchy (one of which is the post of the head of External relations section of the Moscow Patriarchate) were occupied only by people with "clouded" reputation, who could be easily manipulated by KGB. Preobrazhenski also told about the ease with which KGB, through the Committee for Religious Affairs of the USSR Council of Ministers, arranged with the Patriarchy the employment of its servicemen within Church's foreign missions, as well as within the Patriarch residence in Moscow. According to him, most reliable young officers were being chosen for work under the "church's cover".
Already in post-Soviet era, Metropolitan Kirill did not conceal his close ties with Russia's security bodies, which fact could not leave him unnoticed by the foreign counterintelligence services. Most remarkable was the signing, in January 2005, of an agreement between the External relations section of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Academy of Security, Defense, and Law Enforcement Issues. In the framework of this agreement, the two bodies were to cooperate in working out a new concept of State security. It is known that tenths of former and present Russian secret servicemen take part in the work of this Academy.
Participation of the External relations section of the Moscow Patriarchate in the work of abovementioned "Roszarubejcenter" organization was noticed as well. Therefore, nobody in the EU and NATO counterintelligence bodies was surprised by the fact that in 2003, the Russian press called Metropolitan Kirill as the most probable successor of the present head of Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Aleksiy II. In addition, it was clear that the closeness of the former with the Russian authorities is defined not only by his relations with security bodies, but also by the fact of his being born and acting for many years in Leningrad (present Saint Petersburg), native city of many a "Putin's men".
According to the AIA's source, authorities of the Baltic States,
including Estonia, are well aware of the use that the Russian secret services make of particular Estonian Orthodox Church's representatives through the External relations section of the Moscow Patriarchate. This information, however, is not published due to political considerations. That is the reason why it was not included in the open version of the resent annual report of the Estonian Security Police (KAPO), published last week by the local press. According to this document, Russian embassy in Tallinn substantially activated its work among the Russian-speaking population of the country in 2005. According to KAPO's data, such activity is being controlled by the Russian President's Office, through the Directorate of Interregional and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, which was specially created for that purpose. Estonian counterintelligence also got the information that this Directorate was financing the Russian-speaking political forces in Estonia on the eve of the local elections in the country, in autumn 2005. KAPO mentions that in parallel to that, Russian intelligence bodies activated their work to recruit Estonian citizens, both in the territory of Estonia and in Russia. It is claimed in this connection that the Russian intelligence shows particular interest towards Estonia's economic bodies, aiming at their subjection to Russia's influence.