Opinion: Russia is speeding up the incitement of a new religious war
It seems that the Russian revanchists, represented by the ROC and its patronizing power structures, decided to force a new project to attack the authority of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, thereby provoking not only a split in the Orthodox world, but also a new religious conflict.
In less than a week, at least two distinct signs of the beginning of the game of the Danilov Monastery were noted. The first is the entry into the arena of the Kremlin's political puppets, in the Ukrainian media arena, represented by affiliated structures that, through the situation with the Hagia Sophia, are trying to drive a wedge between Ukraine and Turkey. But, the main thing in this exit is not that this is a statement of the fact that pro-Russian political forces are involved in this game, but that such verbiage may be followed by actions of a physical nature.
In particular, I noted earlier that provocations of the Russian special services under the guise of "radical local Orthodox Christians" against Turks and Turkish relics may manifest themselves in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, the Czech Republic, etc.
And now, not even a week has passed since that material, as yesterday, July 14, in Greece, there was already a vandal attack on the Kurshum mosque in the city of Trikala. This incident was immediately linked to the decision of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to re-qualify the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a mosque. That is, provocations and attacks have already begun, but we will return to them later, because the second sign of a large-scale game against Phanar should be mentioned.
The Danilov Monastery is persistently promoting the topic of convening "Amman 2.0", the next schismatic rally in Jordan, under the patronage of the Russian Orthodox Church. The last one, as you remember, suffered a total fiasco, but in the light of new events, Moscow saw real chances, on the basis of religious contradictions, to bring what it had begun, the split in the Orthodox world, to the end and to seize the leadership from the Phanar.
And not only information puppets and talking heads will help her in this, but also the eternal companions of Russian agents around the world - terror and chaos.
Greece was not chosen as the first match in this project by chance. First of all, do not forget how tense relations between Greece and Turkey are. Also, in this story, one should take into account the factor that Bartholomew is a Greek by ethnicity. And, of course, the third point is the rather dense network of agents and the influence of the Russian special services in Greece.
Let me remind you that it was from Greece that representatives of the Russian special services were expelled in 2018 for attempts to bribe and influence the local Orthodox Church.
But not only Greece and other countries of the Orthodox world, in which the presence of Russian special services is no less than in this southern European country, can become a springboard for provocations and pogroms of Muslim shrines. Similar acts of terror can manifest themselves in the Islamic world, where the Russian special services inherited from the USSR contacts and control over a number of radical groups.
If anyone has forgotten, let me remind you that it is not at all a problem for the Russian sixes to carry out a terrorist attack, for example, in Istanbul. A striking example of this was the attack on the Istanbul airport in 2016 under the guise of "ISIS" and the leadership of the agent of the Russian special services Akhmed Chatayev ("One-armed"), who was then liquidated by the Georgian special services in Tbilisi.
Thus, the Russian special services, in the near future, can catalyze a real religious war, alternately stimulating acts of violence, through their puppets, both in Orthodox countries and in Muslim countries.
In parallel with the acts of violence, an information campaign will be held to undermine the Phanar and shift the authority of the authorities to the Danilov Monastery. As a result, the apogee of this project may be a direct threat to the life of the Ecumenical Patriarch, as it was, for example, on the eve of the granting of the Tomos of autocephaly to the OCU. Then the Ecumenical Patriarch was heavily guarded in connection with the threat to his life from the Russian special services.
Alexander Kovalenko, military and political observer
