Watch HERE the video of an informative one-hour meeting at the European Parliament
“Russia is using the clergy of some Orthodox Churches in the EU neighborhood to destabilize countries seeking EU membership, especially before elections,” said experts invited by the Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield at the European Parliament in Brussels on September 21.
Prof. Thorniké Gordadze, a Franco-Georgian academic from the Jacques Delors Institute, spoke on the issue in Georgia and Armenia. Prof. Lucian Leustean Lucian Leustean, a Reader in Politics and International Relations at Aston University, discussed Putin’s concept of spiritual security and the influence of pro-Russian clerics in Ukraine and Serbia, as well as Romania and Bulgaria, both EU members.
The meeting opened with French MEP Nathalie Loiseau (France/ Renew Political Group) quoting President of Moldova, Maia Sandu: “The intervention is a permanent effort, dividing us long-term, like a virus finding weak points in our organisms.”
Moldova: Online pro-Russian disinformation discrediting pro-European government
Before the parliamentary elections on September 28, authorities conducted 250 raids and arrested dozens in a Russia-backed plan to incite “mass riots” and destabilize the country. Seventy-four were detained for up to 72 hours.
MEP Loiseau highlighted Russian propaganda via Orthodox clerics, including fake news that the EU would destroy Orthodox churches if Moldova joins. In 2024, over three hundred Moldovan priests went on expenses-paid “pilgrimages” to Moscow, traveling with their families in groups of over 100 people each.
“These were luxury trips with financial incentives to influence the EU membership referendum,” MEP Loiseau commented.
Questions and reactions of some MEPs
Tomas Zdechovsky (
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