A recently built Russian Orthodox Church on the outskirts of the Swedish town of Västerås is an innocent place of worship to its backers; but to an increasingly vocal group of critics, it is a potential threat to Sweden’s national security.
That’s according to Politico.
The concern centers on the church’s sensitive location, very close to a strategically important airport, a water treatment works and advanced energy companies based in the city of 130,000 located just 100 kilometers west of Stockholm.
Amid a wave of alleged plots by suspected Russian operatives to target infrastructure and murder opponents across Europe, security experts say Sweden should clamp down on Moscow-aligned institutions across the country — including this church.
“The church offers a potential foothold that can be used for information-gathering, both directed at Västerås Airport and at industrial interests in the form of large companies involved in the energy sector,” said Markus Göransson, a researcher focusing on Russia at the Swedish Defence University. “When Sweden’s defense forces undertake exercises on or near the airport, as was done in June, they do so under possible surveillance from the church,” he added.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European nations expelled hundreds of Russian Embassy staff from their countries in an effort to blunt Moscow’s ability to infiltrate its neighbors.
But two years on, it’s increasingly clear that Moscow is continuing to find ways to provide cover for its operatives overseas. And that risks consequences.
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, RFE 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.
Concerns over the Russian church echo those raised over acquisitions by private Russian citizens of buildings close to strategic military sites across the Nordic countries.
These include the case of two Russian businessmen who own ski lodges facing a Norwegian military airport at Bardufoss, as reported by Norwegian broadcaster TV 2. A Russian businessman has also bought a waterfront property facing Sweden’s super-secret naval base, Swedish daily Expressen reported.
In the Finnish town of Kankaanpää, three Russian citizens were recently denied the right to buy a derelict old people’s home close to an army training area on national security grounds, and the Swedish government has suggested it might look to apply similar restrictions in the future.
