In April, United Kingdom authorities said they suspected Russia was behind an arson attack on a British warehouse; and in July, Russian agents were alleged to be plotting to kill the head of Germany’s Rheinmetall, a supplier of arms to Ukraine, CNN reported.
The Russian Orthodox Church appears to be emerging as one potential conduit for Moscow’s covert actions abroad.
Ukrainian security forces raided a monastery in Kyiv early in 2022 to disrupt Russian intelligence operations they said were based there. This August, the Ukrainian government banned the church from its territory outright.
In the Czech Republic, some lawmakers have recently called on the government to investigate church activities on Czech soil, Radio Free Europe reported.
Swedish authorities are also starting to react. At the end of May, the Swedish public body that provides financial support to religious groups, known as SST, stopped funding for the church in Sweden after consulting the country’s security police, or Säpo.
Concerning its statement to SST, a spokesperson for Säpo said his agency had concluded that representatives of the church “have had contacts” with individuals working for Russian intelligence in Sweden. “The Russian state uses the Russian Orthodox Church in Sweden as a platform to conduct intelligence activities in Sweden,” the spokesperson stated.