In the middle of October, an unusual espionage scandal flared up in Norway. It seemed unusual, that is, when held against classic conceptions of church-government relations — and classic conceptions of the role played by religious organisations in espionage activities. When held against Russian (and Soviet) conceptions of “the patriotic duties of the church”, however, nothing here is out of the ordinary.
Working under the auspices of its parishes (six of which, in total, are located in Norway), the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) began to buy up Norwegian real estate parcels which border NATO military facilities. Simultaneously, several Russians had been detained while carrying professional photography equipment and drones that had been caught filming these same military facilities. What’s more, it turns out that one of these detained Russians was Andrei Yakunin, the son of Vladimir Putin’s friend and the former head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin.
The key point of the ROC’s suspicious activity in Norway is the Epiphany Parish in Bergen, which is located next to a naval base housing submarines in the town of Haakonsvern. A few years ago, the parish acquired a house of worship in the vicinity of this base. Religious services are held there just once a year. Norwegian journalists who visited the house of worship noted that only the second floor of the building is open to visitors, and “on the first floor, all the windows are covered with thick curtains.”