Konstantin Preobrazhensky: The tragedy of Fr. Alexander Ivashevich is the pain of our entire Church, and we all pray for his release.

· Argentina, Sin, Konstantin Preobrazhensky, Vestibule, Orthodoxy, Russia, Russian Orthodox Church, Contemporary Persecution, Security Services, USA

A year ago, Fr. Alexander gave me a long telephone interview. It allowed me to write an entire chapter about the steadfastness of our Latin American flock in the struggle against the onslaught of the Moscow Patriarchate. The chapter was called: “Latin America Holds On!” It became part of my new book “The KGB in the Russian Diaspora,” which was recently published in Boston by the Russian-language publisher “M-Graphics.” And who would have thought that the theme of this book would find such a horrifying illustration in what happened to Fr. Alexander!

Alas, the impression is that this was not a random coincidence! After all, Fr. Alexander’s business partner lives in the Russian Federation, and there everything is controlled by the KGB/FSB. This person could have been used on orders for this operation, or he himself could have been a KGB agent, specially planted in Fr. Alexander’s circle several years ago.

After all, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has long been circling around the Holy Trinity Church in Buenos Aires! In his interview, Fr. Alexander told me that in the Argentine state registry, the ownership documents for the Holy Trinity Cathedral had been substituted by someone. And that, indeed, is the hallmark of intelligence work! However, it is unlikely that any RF embassy employee personally swapped the papers by sneaking into the archive! It was done by someone from within the registry itself. Which means that person is an agent of Russian intelligence. In other words, it did not skimp on recruiting an archive employee specifically for this one-time operation!

And this is far from simple! It is completely insufficient to just slip a corrupt Latin American a wad of cash. No, you have to guarantee that he won’t tell anyone, won’t write to the newspaper. And at the same time, he must not be an agent of some other intelligence service, say, the American one.

And you also need to know his exact home address and personally verify that he lives at that address and who lives with him. How to verify? Send a Soviet intelligence officer to the house and watch if he leaves in the morning. Besides, you need to learn his biography and compile a list of relatives, in order to be able to influence him through them if necessary. This is enormous work, involving many people both at the Embassy of Erefiya in Argentina and at the KGB in Moscow.

All this enormous work is required by the rules of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Without compiling all the above-mentioned documents, the intelligence leadership will not approve the recruitment. And only after such approval can one give a newly minted agent such a responsible task as substituting documents in the state registry.

But the agent must also become a personal friend of some Soviet intelligence officer, otherwise he might pull some stunt. How can that be ensured? By holding numerous personal meetings with the person. The meetings are held in restaurants, many of them, and the restaurants must be luxurious so that the agent respects his new friend. Can you imagine how many thousands of dollars all this cost?

Such efforts the RF intelligence did not spare to pull the rug out from under Fr. Alexander! I can only imagine what a huge dossier has been compiled on him at the KGB! I think a copy of it has now arrived at the Embassy of Erefiya in Uruguay.

But according to KGB rules, such operations as document substitution in an archive are not carried out in isolation! They can only be done in conjunction with other measures, because the working principle of KGB/FSB intelligence is a comprehensive approach.

And there are many such measures. For example, recruiting agents among Fr. Alexander’s parishioners, studying the situation inside the cathedral through them. Organizing round-the-clock external surveillance of the cathedral from the homes of local residents, the same corrupt Latin Americans who have also become KGB agents. This also includes ensuring support from the Argentine police and security services — which, apparently, did happen. It turns out these services are also full of Soviet agents. And finally, Moscow could directly monitor Fr. Alexander using video and audio recording equipment installed at the compound.

Yes, I do not rule out at all that the KGB managed to do this as well. Because the RF intelligence headquarters in Moscow has a powerful Operational-Technical Directorate specially for such purposes. It handles the installation of listening devices and other equipment in buildings abroad where a Soviet intelligence officer cannot enter in person. The equipment can be “fired” from a passing car, and there are many other methods. I myself visited this operational-technical directorate many times precisely for such purposes. And it occupies, by the way, several floors!

However, one could talk about this endlessly. We, on the other hand, need to understand our situation.

We have challenged the mighty Putinist KGB empire. For we have done something that is absolutely forbidden in today’s Russia: we refused to carry out Putin’s order! And he clearly ordered us to unite with the Moscow Patriarchate. Why did he order it? Because he considers himself the master of the Russian diaspora (unfortunately, to a large extent he is right).

Because of this, we have been listed as enemies of Putin. “They are working on us,” as they say in the KGB. Primarily, this work involves infiltrating KGB agents into our ranks. They are here, in the USA, I can see them.

Moreover, we must understand that our churches are being taken away not by the Moscow Patriarchate at all. It is just a cover. This activity could just as well be carried out by, say, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation or the “Rodina” society. No, we have a more dangerous adversary — the Putinist KGB empire, a terrifying force that has long since transcended its national borders and operates freely worldwide. Everyone fears it and forgives it everything. For example, recently it bumped off the Polish president, and the whole world swallowed it.

Therefore, we must quadruple our vigilance. We can no longer simply pray to God, as was permissible in Western countries until quite recently. However, in the West, too, a struggle against Christianity has begun…

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