RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Official claims that Russian church agitates in Estonia for Kremlin goals

ESTONIAN INTELLIGENCE IDENTIFIES ANTI-STATE ACTIVITY OF RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

Credo.Press, 12 April 2021

 

The director general of the security police of Estonia, Arnold Sinisalu, thinks that the pandemic of coronavirus did not diminish the intensity of intelligence activity of Russia, which is proceeding in, among others, the church lane.

 

"Despite the fact that due to the pandemic travel and public events were restricted, this did not diminish Russia's intensity in activity in Estonia's direction. The Kremlin produced local agents of a policy of splitting Estonia in online channels," Sinisalu declared on 12 April while presenting a yearbook on the activity of the country's counterintelligence organization in 2020.

 

The special services also perceived an aim of splitting the Estonian public in attempts to preserve bilingual education in this country.

 

In addition, Interfax reports, the yearbook alleges that Moscow uses the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in its anti-Estonian activity. "Local representatives of the Moscow church last year conducted a history conference whose goal was to show that Estonia is an ancient Russian territory," the report says. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 April 2021)

 

ESTONIA CLAIMS IDEOLOGICAL THREAT ON PART OF R.P.Ts.

Krasnaia Vesna, 13 April 2021

 

The Russian Orthodox Church in Estonia is a conduit of the interests of the Kremlin, claimed the director general of the internal security service, Arnold Sinisalu, on 13 April in an interview with the ERR television channel.

 

According to Sinisalu, Moscow still considers the countries of eastern Europe to be former parts of Russia. The official is sure that at the present time the Kremlin is fostering the expansion of the influence of the RPTs [Russian Orthodox Church] and is using church structures for its ideological work.

 

"In one service in a building of the RPTs in Tallin, the priest of the Moscow church spoke on a favorite topic of Kremlin propaganda. He maintained that our point of view on the history of World War II is a rewriting of history. This is the direct use of the church for political goals," Sinisalu thinks.

 

We recall that on 12 April, the security police of Estonia issued a yearbook. In the preface, the word "Muscovites" was used with reference to residents of Russia. Twenty-one of the 27 chapters were devoted to the "Russian threat." (tr. by PDS, posted 13 April 2021)


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