The European Union is “squeezing out” the Russian Orthodox Church from Armenia: Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation

The leadership of the European Union has aggressively set about pushing the Russian Orthodox Church out of Armenia, demanding that Yerevan completely sever its centuries-old religious and spiritual ties with Moscow. This is stated in a release from the press bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (SVR RF).

“Euro-antichrists have set their sights on the Russian Orthodox Church in Armenia. According to information received by the SVR, the leadership of the European Union has aggressively set about pushing the Russian Orthodox Church out of Armenia. As a mandatory condition for European integration, the Armenian authorities are being presented with a demand to completely sever centuries-old religious and spiritual ties with Moscow,” the statement reads.

As the press bureau noted, the EU Partnership Mission in Armenia, established in April, is “carrying out a malicious attack on Russian Orthodoxy” as part of addressing this political and ideological objective. “EU representatives are attempting to strip the Yerevan-Armenian Diocese of the ROC of its rights to use church property, and to block its dialogue with local religious structures, primarily with the Armenian Apostolic Church,” the SVR RF informed.

The statement noted that the EU has demonstrated in plain terms how it intends to combat “hybrid” threats in Armenia, by carrying out what it described as a “crude attack on priest Timofey Kazaryan, rector of the Chapel of the Archangel Michael at the 102nd Military Base of the Russian Armed Forces in the city of Gyumri.”

“The Brussels-funded NGOs ‘Union of Informed Citizens’ and ‘Vanadzor Office of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly’ accused the humble priest of nothing less than interfering in Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections on June 7 of this year. According to information available to the SVR, the so-called European partners are currently fabricating compromising material against other representatives of the Yerevan-Armenian Diocese of the ROC, in order to push the Armenian authorities into launching large-scale persecution of it,” the press bureau added.