Bulgarian secret service agents in cassocks came to the aid of colleagues in the Russian Orthodox Church

· Bulgaria, Vestibule, Orthodoxy, Russian Orthodox Church, Security Services

It is noteworthy that Bulgaria, a European Union and NATO member, after carrying out lustration of agents of the local “KGB” still has them in the leadership of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC). These Bulgarian agents in cassocks help their former comrades in the KGB of the USSR in cassocks of the Russian Orthodox Church to remain in Bulgaria.

The scandalous expulsion from Bulgaria of the representative or patriarch Kirill (KGB agent “Mikhailov”) Archimandrite Filipp (Vasiltsev) once again gained publicity in an ITAR-TASS interview with one of the most powerful hierarchs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC), Metropolitan Kirill of Varna and Veliki Preslav, who owes his influence to his long‑standing collaboration with the Bulgarian secret service “Durzhavna Sigurnost” (DS), where he is known as “agent Kovachev” (see photo).

According to him, the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker at the metochion of the Russian Orthodox Church in Sofia … must not have any parish at all: “I think it is normal if some parishioners have their own position. However, they should acquaint themselves with the structure of the Orthodox Church, where the parish itself matters, since there are parish and non‑parish churches. The Russian metochion is precisely a non‑parish one. It has a special status. On the whole there are no obstacles for Bulgarians to pray together with Russians in this church. One should not mix church matters with political ones, because the tension around the ROC metochion in Sofia has above all shifted into a political channel”…

Commenting on the dissatisfaction of a group of Bulgarian parishioners with the activities of Archimandrite Filipp (Vasiltsev) – the head of the ROC metochion at the Bulgarian Patriarchate, Metropolitan Kirill expressed the opinion that “this scandal will be settled and Father Filipp will receive a Bulgarian visa to continue his ministry at the Russian metochion”?!

Moreover, he launched a criticism of the “public circles interested in undermining the work of the ROC metochion in Sofia and the very relations between the sister Churches,” which, in his view, display exactly the same attitude towards the Bulgarian Church itself: “these people also have a negative attitude towards Bulgarian hierarchs, calling them dogmatists and calling for their overthrow. Now attempts to influence the Church through some kind of democratisation are appearing more and more often. We are accused of not paying attention to the laity, but that is not so; they have the right to participate in parish life – to take part in parish governance on the basis of the church statute” :-)

As reported earlier, Archimandrite Filipp was expelled from Bulgaria on 11 March 2013 for violating the rules of stay in the country and lacking the necessary documents. : https://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/expertmus/1032768-echo/ The Department for Inter‑Orthodox Relations of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (DECR MP) first tried to hush up the scandal itself, and then to refute it with absurd claims that the priest’s departure was supposedly connected with the need to obtain a long‑term Bulgarian visa in order to continue his ministry at the ROC metochion in Sofia?! As anonymous sources in the DECR MP communications service reported, “Father Filipp left Bulgaria as part of a procedure agreed with the competent Bulgarian state bodies, necessary for obtaining a new visa” :-)

Let us recall that in January 2012 the dossiers of the senior hierarchs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church who collaborated with the Bulgarian secret service “Durzhavna Sigurnost” (DS) were published. “For the secret operation ‘Citadel’ on Mount Athos we needed highly qualified agents capable of living there for a long time without giving themselves away,” – thus was stated in the dossier of Metropolitan Kirill of Varna and Veliki Preslav, known in the DS as “agent Kovachev,” as Le Figaro was able to establish.

Together with another monk – Nathanael – he found himself among those selected monks who had been recruited at a very young age. First they underwent instruction in the basics of intelligence work and conspiracy, then they were sent to study theology in Athens. In 1976 “Kovachev” was given a special camera and sent on his first assignment, with a dual task: to study thoroughly the material heritage of the monasteries and to assess the mood within the religious community: https://expertmus.livejournal.com/93905.html

Having arrived in Zograf, “agent Kovachev” recorded in detail all the intra‑monastic intrigues and photographed especially valuable objects. From Sofia he received instructions to study more deeply the contents of the library in the Bulgarian monastery of Zograf, and “Kovachev” managed to obtain classified information about the treasures of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery. As was stated in his report submitted to the DS: “Archimandrite Abel was sent by Moscow to plunder the monastery. It is said that the Russians even set a fire to facilitate the robbery. Patriarch Pimen of Moscow left with 300 suitcases of valuable objects, the same is said about Metropolitan Nikodim*”!

In this case the reference is to Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov), whom the current patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) calls his mentor (see photo): https://rublev-museum.livejournal.com/250238.html At the meeting on 30 September 2011 at the suburban residence of the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in Gorki, Patriarch Kirill recalled that he “first visited Athos at the very beginning of the 1970s together with his teacher – Bishop Nikodim of Leningrad and Novgorod, who, while still head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, was the first Soviet citizen to visit Athos in the early 1960s”: https://expertmus.livejournal.com/83380.html

In fact, the first official delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate consisting of Archbishop Nikodim, Archimandrite Pitirim (Nechaev), and DECR referent V.S. Alekseev arrived on Athos on June 22, 1962. As Bishop Pitirim recalled, a funny incident occurred on Athos when a little donkey flatly refused to carry the 120‑kg Bishop Nikodim, who, according to him, “hated Patriarch Alexy with a fierce hatred” (The Departing Rus’. Stories of Metropolitan Pitirim. St. Petersburg, 2007. Pp. 283–285). In July 1966, Bishop Nikodim (Rotov) sent 4 people from the Pskov‑Caves Monastery to the St. Panteleimon’s Monastery, about whom the abbot of the monastery, Schema‑Archimandrite Ilian (Sorokin; † 1971), wrote literally the following: “we received them with great respect — we gave the senior hieromonk Stefan the deputy’s cell… Stefan began to speak, so that we would show what is kept in the fireproof cabinets”.

In 1969, two more monks from the Trinity‑Sergius Lavra were sent to Athos from the USSR, including Father Abel (Makedonov), mentioned in the report of “agent Kovachev”. In March 1972, from the Panteleimon’s Monastery they wrote about them: “the worst thing for us with them is that they have no brotherly love among themselves. They often fight – even in church, already twice one pulled out the other’s hair … It is very bad that all of Athos learns about it”: https://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/expertmus/882477-echo/

By the way, Archimandrite Abel (Makedonov) was a childhood friend of Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov), and now his nephew, Metropolitan Joseph (Makedonov) of Ivanovo‑Voznesensk and Vichuga, is the ruling hierarch of the Ivanovo diocese, where the ROC has declared war on monuments … to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War: https://rublev-museum.livejournal.com/349410.html

In the spring of 1979, “agent Kovachev” was exposed by Greek special services, and the Greek authorities ordered him to leave the country for “exceeding his authority”, i.e., with the same diplomatic formulation as in the case of the recent expulsion from Bulgaria of Patriarch Kirill’s representative, Archimandrite Philip (Vasiltsev): https://echo.msk.ru/blog/expertmus/1034986-echo/

Moreover, according to the testimony of informed persons, “the extremely humiliating circumstances of his expulsion from Athos — the monk was dragged by the hair, defrocked, and tied to a mule — suggest that the true nature of his activity did not escape the attention of his masters”! A few months after returning to Sofia, “agent Kovachev” was sent to represent the Bulgarian Church at the Moscow Patriarchate, and in time became … Metropolitan Kirill of Varna and Veliki Preslav.

In 1990, Metropolitan Kirill of Varna and Veliki Preslav submitted a request to the Bulgarian special services to destroy his dossier, but the request of “agent Kovachev” was not granted :-) The former head of the Sixth Directorate of the DS, Dimitar Ivanov, said on Bulgarian television that the hierarchs were not paid money for their cooperation — except that sometimes on holidays they were given … candy, cognac, and whiskey. He also asserts that candidates for recruitment were selected based on personal qualities, not on the position they held in the Church: https://rublev-museum.livejournal.com/281771.html

At the beginning of 2012, three priests in Bulgaria openly appeared on television demanding the resignation of metropolitans who had been found to have worked for the communist state security organs. It was announced by Father Vladko Taskov from the village of Kula (near Blagoevgrad, in the southwest of the country). The priests stated that it was not they who accused the metropolitans, but “the Gospel, the dogmas, and the canons”!

On January 21, 2012, in the Sofia Church of St. Nedelya, one of the most well‑known hierarchs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC), Metropolitan Nikolai of Plovdiv, asked Patriarch Maxim for forgiveness for the sin of collaboration by high‑ranking hierarchs with the special services. After the death of Patriarch Maxim, it was Metropolitan Nikolai who publicly expressed concern over the Synod’s election of Metropolitan Kirill of Varna and Veliki Preslav as locum tenens, known for his work for the DS special service (“agent Kovachev”).

The protest of Metropolitan Nikolai was then supported by Metropolitan Grigory of Veliko Tarnovo, who, in an open letter to the Holy Synod, published on the official website of the BOC, stated that due to the growth of criticism against the Church, in particular, for violating the BOC Statute in the election of the locum tenens, he was withdrawing his signature from the minutes of the Holy Synod meeting at which Metropolitan Kirill of Varna was elected temporary head of the Bulgarian Church: https://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/expertmus/950977-echo/

As we see, even in Bulgaria itself many high‑ranking hierarchs of the BOC sharply protest against former agents of special services “in cassocks and mantles”, who are trying to do a “disservice” to their “colleagues” in the ROC, in every way shielding their scandal‑tarnished representatives …