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Tag: Security services

  • Ukraine bans religious organizations with links to Russia

    Ukraine bans religious organizations with links to Russia

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine on Friday banned the activities of religious organizations “affiliated with centers of influence” in Russia and said it would examine the links between the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox churches.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree enacting a National Security and Defense Council decision to impose personal sanctions against representatives of religious organizations associated with Russia, which invaded Ukraine more than nine months ago.

    Zelenskyy’s decree additionally provided for examining the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, one of two Orthodox bodies in Ukraine following a schism that in 2019 resulted in the establishment of one with independence from the Russian church.

    Ukrainian officials suspect the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is promoting pro-Russian views and that some priests may be actively collaborating with Russia. Moscow Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has justified Russia’s war in Ukraine as part of a “metaphysical struggle” to prevent a liberal ideological encroachment from the West.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukrainian authorities last week of “waging a war on the Russian Orthodox Church.” But the Rev. Mykolay Danylevich, who has often served as a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, disputed Peskov’s characterization, asserting on Telegram that the church was not Russian.

    The UOC declared its independence from Moscow in May over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    In his nightly video address on Thursday, Zelenskyy said the use of Kyiv’s Pechersk Lavra monastery complex — a UNESCO world heritage site revered as the cradle of Orthodox monasticism in the region — would also come under further scrutiny.

    Members of the Security Service of Ukraine, the country’s National Guard and police searched the monastery last week after a priest spoke favorably about Russia during a service there. The Security Service said its agents searched more than 350 church buildings in all, including at another monastery and in a diocese of the Rivne region, 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of Kyiv.

    The security agency, which is known by the Ukrainian acronym SBU, said the searches turned up “pro-Russian literature, which is used during studies in seminaries and parish schools, including for propaganda of the ‘Russian world.’” More than 50 people underwent in-depth “counterintelligence interviews, including using a polygraph,” as part of the investigation, the agency said.

    The investigation of the centuries-old monastic complex in Ukraine’s capital and other religious sites underscored Ukrainian authorities’ suspicions about some Orthodox Christian clergy they consider as remaining loyal to Russia. The SBU said last week’s activities were part of its “systematic work to counter the subversive activities of the Russian special services in Ukraine.”

    Orthodox Christians are the largest religious population in Ukraine. But they have been fractured along lines that echo political tensions over Ukraine’s defense of its independence and its Western orientation amid Russia’s continued claim to political and spiritual hegemony in the region — a concept sometimes called the “Russian world.” Many Orthodox leaders have spoken fiercely in favor of Ukrainian independence and denounced the Russian invasion, but the recent searches show that authorities suspect places like Pechersk Lavra of being hotbeds of pro-Russian sentiment and activity.

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    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Report: Norway detains university lecturer as suspected spy

    Report: Norway detains university lecturer as suspected spy

    COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway’s domestic security agency has detained a man who entered the country as a Brazilian citizen but is suspected of being a Russian spy, a Norwegian broadcaster reported Tuesday.

    The man was arrested Monday in the Arctic city of Tromsoe, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said, adding that investigators believe he was in Norway under a false name and identity while working for one of Russia’s intelligence services.

    Norwegian Police Security Service deputy chief Hedvig Moe told NRK that the man had been based at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsoe as “a Brazilian researcher” and would be expelled from the Scandinavian country “because we believe he represents a threat to fundamental national interests.”

    The security service, known as PST, “is concerned that he may have acquired a network and information about Norway’s policy in the northern region,” Moe said, according to NRK. “Even if this network or the information bit by bit is a threat to the security of the kingdom, we are worried that the information could be misused by Russia.”

    PST representatives were not immediately available to comment. In a statement, Arctic University of Norway administrator Jørgen Fossland said the person in question was “a guest lecturer” at the school. Fossland referred other questions to the security service.

    Several Russian citizens have been detained in Norway in recent weeks. They include three men and a woman who were seen allegedly taking photos in central Norway of objects covered under a photography ban. They have since been released.

    European nations have heightened security around key energy, internet and power infrastructure following underwater explosions that ruptured two natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea that were built to deliver Russian gas to Germany.

    The damaged Nord Stream pipelines off Sweden and Denmark discharged huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the air.

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