Moscow, June 5, 2026
Photo: Holy Protection Church in Yerevan. Photo: Wikipedia
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service has warned that the European Union is pressing Armenia to sever its religious ties with Moscow as a condition of EU integration.
The Service alleges in a statement published on June 3 that the EU Partnership Mission in Armenia, established in April of this year, is working to strip the Yerevan-Armenian Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) of its rights to church property and to block its dialogue with local religious institutions, including the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The statement singles out an attack on Fr. Timothy Kazaryan, rector of the Church of the Archangel Michael at Russia’s 102nd military base in Gyumri. According to the Service, two Brussels-backed NGOs—the Union of Informed Citizens and the Vanadzor Office of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly accused the priest of interfering in Armenia’s parliamentary elections scheduled for June 7.
The Service further states that “so-called European partners” are currently fabricating compromising material against other representatives of the Yerevan-Armenian Diocese in order to prompt Armenian authorities to launch large-scale persecution of the church.
The statement informs EU officials that the history of relations between Armenia and Russia “is incomparably older than the history of the European Union,” and that the spiritual and religious ties between the two peoples “are deeper and stronger than any political technology project.”
It concludes that those ties would outlast the attacks of EU officials who have “long rejected their own cultural and historical identity.”
Follow OrthoChristian on Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, and MeWe!
