Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill spied for KGB in Switzerland in 1970s – Swiss media
Head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill (Photo:REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina)
In the 1970s, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, spied in Geneva for the KGB under the World Council of Churches, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported on Feb. 4.
Kirill reportedly carried out espionage activities while living in Geneva as the official representative of the Moscow Patriarchate at the World Council of Churches (WCC).
The mission of Kirill, whose code name was “Mikhailov”, was also to influence this council, which had been infiltrated by the KGB in the 1970s and 1980s.
The publication reports that it received information about Kirill in declassified archives about the activities of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church when he worked undercover.
The Patriarch is claimed to have influenced the World Council of Churches in the interests of the Soviet Union.
The Russian Orthodox Church has not commented on the Swiss newspaper’s claims regarding Kirill’s past, and the Russian Embassy in Switzerland called the article “an example of Russophobia.”
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