A Swiss police claims that Kyrylo Gundyaev worked for the special services in Geneva under the pseudonym "Mikhailov".
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev), worked in the 1970s in Geneva for the former Soviet KGB foreign intelligence service. He worked under the call sign "Mikhailov" and was supposed to influence the World Council of Churches.
This was reported on Sunday, February 5, by the Swiss publications Le Matin Dimanche and Sonntagszeitung, referring to data from the Swiss Federal Archives, reports DW.
Journalists claim that the dossier compiled on Kirill by the Federal Police at the time confirms that he "belonged to the KGB."
According to journalists, in the early 1970s, the current patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church was in Geneva under the pseudonym "Mikhailov". There he officially represented the Moscow Patriarchate in the World Council of Churches (WCC).
According to the archives, Kirill's task was, in particular, to influence the VRC, which agents of KGB influence permeated. The Soviet leadership aimed to force this religious institution to condemn the USA and its allies and soften their criticism of the lack of religious freedom in the USSR.
According to two newspapers, the Russian Orthodox Church still refuses to comment on Kirill's alleged espionage activities in Geneva. At the same time, the VRC stated that it does not have "any information" on this issue.
Meanwhile, the current representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Geneva, Kirill's successor in office, is his nephew Mykhailo Gundyaev. In a comment to Le Matin Dimanche, he denied that his uncle was an agent. According to him, Kirill "was never an agent", despite "strict control" by the KGB. Gundyaev Jr. assures that the "sincerity of his commitment to ecumenical work with other churches" was "not affected" by pressure from the Soviet special services.
According to Tagesanzeiger, the Russian Embassy in Bern called this information another example of "Russophobia" spreading in Switzerland.
It is known that Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church supports the policy of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In his statements, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church fully supports Russian military aggression against Ukraine, in particular, in March 2022, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Kyrylo de facto blessed the military of the Russian army for the war against Ukraine after a liturgy in Moscow.
