The Moscow Patriarchate church, located near the strategic VST airport, has found itself at the center of an investigation into possible espionage activities.
On the outskirts of the Swedish city of Västerås, in a wooded area near a former military base and the current civilian Stockholm-Västerås Airport (VST), stands a wooden Orthodox church with a high dome. It belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
This was reported by the publication FRANCE 24.
The church was built in the early 2020s, although a permit for its construction was issued back in 2017. During construction, deviations from the approved parameters were allowed: in particular, the height of the spire was 22 meters instead of the permitted 10. The site is also located just 300 meters from the airport – the third longest runway in the country – and close to the strategic E18 highway.
In 2023, the Swedish security service SAPO officially stated that the churches of the Moscow Patriarchate could be used as a platform for collecting intelligence information, promoting pro-Russian narratives and hybrid activity. The agency noted that the parishes received funding from the Russian budget and maintained contacts with Russian intelligence services.
The church's priest, 68-year-old Pavel Makarenko, has lived in Sweden since the 1990s. In the early 2020s, his company was found guilty of fraud — the court sentenced him to probation, 160 hours of community service, and a three-year ban on business activities. Makarenko was subsequently awarded a medal by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. A photo of the award was published on the website of an organization associated with Patriarch Kirill.
According to FRANCE 24, the construction of the church was financed by the Foundation for Support of Christian Culture and Heritage, an organization linked to the state corporation Rosatom. The total cost of the project was 35 million Swedish kronor (approximately 3.2 million euros).
Following the publication of the SAPO report, the Swedish government stopped funding all congregations affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate. The municipality of Västerås is considering expropriating the land where the church is located, citing national security concerns.
This is not the only such case. In 2019, another community — the oldest Russian Orthodox Church in Sweden — was subjected to an attempted takeover by representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church. The parish received massive membership applications in order to change the leadership to one loyal to Moscow. The rector, Father Angel, stopped these actions. After that, his community came under the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Patriarchate.
And in the chapel of St. Siegfried in the suburbs of Stockholm, after the lease expired, the ROC congregation did not vacate the premises, changed the locks and created a parallel management. The conflict lasted for several years and ended only after the court ruled in favor of the previous owners. Pastor Kare Strindberg called it “an open kidnapping” and emphasized that the church was not chosen by chance: its spire offers a panoramic view of Stockholm and is located next to an important bridge and reservoir.
SAPO believes that such places, which are located near critical infrastructure facilities, are deliberately chosen by the Moscow Patriarchate. In 2023, Bulgaria deported a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church due to suspicions of espionage, and the FBI in the United States publicly warned about the possible use of Russian churches to recruit agents.
We also wrote that the Kremlin is using nuns in a remote monastery in the Baltic region to spread pro-Russian propaganda as part of its hybrid war against Europe.
Recall that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree to deprive the head of the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Onufriy, of citizenship.
At the same time, in Cherkassy, the court released from custody the scandalous Metropolitan of the UOC MP Feodosiy, in whose diocese pro-Russian propaganda literature was found.
