đ âThe Russian Orthodox Church has evolved from a religious body into a strategic Kremlin asset in Africa, providing help in intelligence operations & facilitating military recruitment.â
The Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (ROC-MP) came to Africa about five years ago to expand its influence in the Orthodox world after the Ecumenical Patriarchate extended autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to weaken the Patriarchateâs claim to primacy even across the former Soviet space. In the last two years, however, the ROC-MP has assumed a vastly more important role as Moscowâs agent on the African sub-continent. It also simultaneously provides a cover for Russian intelligence and covert action operations and even helps Moscow to conduct such operations. More recently, its portfolio has expanded to another new dimension - helping the Kremlin to recruit Africans to fill the depleted ranks of the Russian invasion force in Ukraine, although the church denies doing so.
The Moscow Patriarchate has had some success on the ground and even more in the Kremlin, but by its actions, it has completely compromised itself as a church committed to religious principles. That will not only accelerate the demise of its influence across the former Soviet space but also should alert religious leaders in other countries that when they are dealing with the ROC-MP, they are interacting with an organization that is not so much a religious body but an arm of the Russian state.
*Map of Russian Orthodoxy in Africa: 2022 to 2024: Source Bloomberg
History of ROC Ties to the Russian Intelligence Services
The ROC-MP has a long history of being closely connected with the Soviet and Russian intelligence services, with many of its hierarchs having been and presumably still being officers in those services. But remarkably, it only rarely had much to do with Africa because that continent had long been recognized in the Orthodox world as the canonical territory of the Alexandrian patriarchate, one of the most ancient but smallest and poorest of the Orthodox hierarchies in the world.
The Moscow Patriarchate sought its support and did not want to undermine that chance by poaching Alexandrian churches. However, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople granted autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Alexandrian patriarchate did not oppose it, the Moscow church adopted the position that the old rules were no longer applicable and moved to take over churches in Africa to expand its own network there. It was able to do so because small amounts of aid brought it enormous returns on the ground, opening the path for Moscow to establish its own exarchate to manage its own parishes and bishoprics in Africa, beginning as early as 2022, when the ROC-MP announced it had a presence in 19 countries.
That network quickly fell under the influence of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR, which viewed the church as a useful cover for its own agents and an even more useful way to penetrate the political elites of African countries who might have been put off by a more direct approach by Russian intelligence. This subtle form of infiltration served as a necessary alternative to the often heavy-handed tactics of Russian âPrivate Military Companiesâ (PMCs), like the Prigozhin-founded Wagner Group, which spearheaded the Kremlinâs overt military presence across sub-Saharan Africa.
The actual number of converts, parishes, and priests is a matter of dispute but appears to be in the hundreds, dozens, and a smaller number, respectively. And the activities of the SVR using the ROC-MP as cover and assistant are also a matter of dispute because what the church does in this regard is hidden beyond a veil of secrecy, something that encourages exaggeration. Regardless, it is beyond question that the Kremlin is using the ROC-MP to achieve its goals in Africa.
The ROC Pivots to African Manpower Recruitment
In the past several months, the ROC-MP has devoted greater attention to attracting Africans not only to join Russian PMCs operating there, such as the Wagner Group, but also to serve as a source of recruitment to replenish the depleted ranks of the Russian army fighting in Ukraine. While the actual number of African recruits is a matter of dispute, ranging from 200 to more than 1500, and should be treated with caution, the ROC-MP is now playing another covert role in helping Moscow in new ways. According to Novaya Gazeta, there is strong evidence that the ROC-MP has become âthe African Orthodox Military Commissariat,â a role of increasing importance given the growing manpower shortages in the Russian army. The impact of such recruitment is almost certainly greater in the Russian PMCs that are operating in the African countries from which these troops come than in the battlefields of Ukraine to which at least a few have been sent, but probably far fewer than some claim and others fear.
The Kremlin is undoubtedly pleased with the fact that the ROC-MP is helping to boost the number of Africans cooperating with its PMCs in Africa and even providing much-needed manpower for Putinâs expanded war in Ukraine. The ROC-MP is certainly using this to try to bolster its standing with the Kremlin after losing its dominant position in Ukraine and, at risk of similar losses, any influence it retains across the former Soviet space.
Outlook
For both the Kremlin and, especially, the ROC-MP, these gains have come at a high cost. This highlights the way in which the ROC-MPâwhich was created during World War II when Stalin restored an Orthodox church in Russiaâhas willingly accepted the role as handmaiden of the Russian security services, while further undermining its influence in the Eastern Orthodox world. Its contempt for the canonical space of the Alexandrian Patriarchate and the influence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are destroying whatever influence the ROC-MP had in the Orthodox world and the ecumenical movement. In fact, the day may come when the Kremlin and the Patriarchate will recognize that the price they paid for short-term successes will be an ever-larger failure across the former Soviet space and the world.
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