Västerås, Sweden, April 28, 2025
Photo: politico.eu
The local branch of the Moderate Coalition Party in the Swedish town of Västerås, located 110 miles from Stockholm, has proposed relocating the Russian Orthodox church situated near the local airport to another location through expropriation. This was reported by SVT television.
Local politicians claim the church is allegedly connected to the Russian state and may pose security risks. “In the environment we now live in, we need to make sure it moves to another location,” said Elisabeth Unell, the leader of the local party branch, in an interview with Swedish outlet SVT, reports TASS.
“This means that next to Västerås airport we have [a representation of] a foreign power.”
The church is also located near a water treatment works and advanced energy companies. Of course, the construction of the church on this location was approved by the town’s own planning committee in February 2017. The wooden church was consecrated on November 4, 2023.
Now, the Moderate Coalition Party branch has submitted an official proposal to the Västerås administration for the expropriation of the Russian Orthodox church building. The proposal will be reviewed, and a response will be given at the end of May. If municipal authorities approve the initiative, the issue will be submitted to the government for consideration. If the proposal is supported, the property will be purchased from the owner at a price 25-30% above market value.
According to Staffan Jansson, head of the local administration, this is the first time the question of expropriation of property based on connections with Russia has arisen in Västerås.
Politico reported on the rising suspicious surrounding the church last November. The article demonstrates that, characteristically, the fears are purely hypothetical:
“The church offers a potential foothold that can be used for information-gathering, both directed at Västerås Airport and at industrial interests in the form of large companies involved in the energy sector,” said Markus Göransson, a researcher focusing on Russia at the Swedish Defence University. “When Sweden’s defense forces undertake exercises on or near the airport, as was done in June, they do so under possible surveillance from the church,” he added [emphasis added].
Säpo, the Swedish Security Service, made the same assertions about the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole in Sweden last year, which prompted the Agency for Support to Religious Communities to withhold funding from the Russian Church.
Earlier, in June 2023, a parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia was evicted from the church it had been renting for three years in Malmö, the third-largest city in Sweden after Stockholm and Gothenburg.
Follow OrthoChristian on Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!
