10:25 AM 10/31/2023 - Praying for Putin: Spies in Cassocks Threaten the West - Selected Articles - The News And Times
Michael Novakhov's favorite articles Praying for Putin: Spies in Cassocks Threaten the West posted at 14:21:38 UTC via cepa.org The Kremlin’s increasing use of Russian Orthodox priests as spies and propagandists is a security threat that the West should counter more decisively. Bulgaria and North Macedonia have expelled Russian and Belorussian clerics for acts contravening their national security, and in the US the FBI has warned Russian and Greek Orthodox churches that the Kremlin’s intelligence services may be using them to recruit agents. Analysts have long warned that the Kremlin employs the Orthodox Church as a tool for advancing its foreign policy and infiltrating European Union (EU) and NATO member states. According to declassified archives, the head of the Church, Patriarch Kirill, worked for both the KGB and its successor, the FSB. Kirill has wholeheartedly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, portraying it as a holy war against “Nazis”. During a sermon
