The Serbian Orthodox Church: Key Pillar of Russian Influence in Balkans

Albana­ian media is report­ing that The Ser­bian Ortho­dox Church has emerged as one of Rus­si­a’s most reli­able instru­ments for main­tain­ing influ­ence in the Balka­ns, serv­ing as a cru­cial inter­me­di­ary between Moscow and region­al lead­ers when tra­di­tion­al diplo­mat­ic chan­nels prove insuf­fi­cient. Accord­ing to Russ­ian jour­nal­ist and geostrate­gic ana­lyst Gen­nady Vik­torovich Sysoyev, a long­time Kom­m­er­sant cor­re­spon­dent in the Balka­ns, the church’s role became par­tic­u­lar­ly evi­dent when it facil­i­tat­ed Ser­bian Pres­i­dent Alek­san­dar Vučić’s atten­dance at Moscow’s May 9 Vic­to­ry Day parade after he had declined a pre­vi­ous BRICS sum­mit invi­ta­tion. The arti­cle begins:

The Ser­bian Ortho­dox Church (SOC) is one of the key actors in the real­iza­tion of Russ­ian inter­ests in the Balka­ns, but it is not the only play­er that Moscow has in the region. This is stat­ed by jour­nal­ist and geostrate­gic ana­lyst Gen­nady Vik­torovich Sysoyev, a long-time cor­re­spon­dent for the Russ­ian news­pa­per Kom­m­er­sant in the Balka­ns. Accord­ing to him, the influ­ence of the SOC is par­tic­u­lar­ly vis­i­ble in Rus­si­a’s efforts to main­tain and strength­en its pres­ence in the region, espe­cial­ly after the start of Russ­ian aggres­sion against Ukraine in 2022, which has con­tributed to the shrink­age of Russ­ian pow­er in regions such as the Balka­ns. Siso­jev men­tions a meet­ing held in April of this year in Moscow, where the Patri­arch of the Ser­bian Ortho­dox Church, Por­fir­i­je, and Bish­op Irinej Bulović, met with Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin.

          Read more: https://www.gazetaexpress.com/en/Russian-newspaper-Serbian-Orthodox-Church-one-of-the-pillars-of-Russian-influence-in-the-Balkans/

Key Points

• A cru­cial Moscow meet­ing in April 2025 between Patri­arch Por­fir­i­je, Bish­op Irinej Bulović, and Putin secured Vučić’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the May 9 Vic­to­ry Day parade
• The Krem­lin bypassed polit­i­cal chan­nels and used the Ser­bian Ortho­dox Church after Vučić declined a pre­vi­ous BRICS sum­mit invi­ta­tion cit­ing “pri­or commitments”
• Sysoyev notes that Rus­sia has lost tra­di­tion­al influ­ence in Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina, Mon­tene­gro, and even Ser­bia due to these coun­tries’ West­ern rapprochement
• The Ser­bian Ortho­dox Church remains a “strong bridge of con­nec­tion with Moscow” and instru­ment of Russ­ian for­eign pol­i­cy despite region­al geopo­lit­i­cal shifts

The Russian Orthodox Church: Kremlin’s Spiritual Weapon

The Russ­ian Ortho­dox Church (ROC) oper­ates as a key instru­ment of Krem­lin for­eign pol­i­cy, pro­vid­ing ide­o­log­i­cal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for Moscow’s geopo­lit­i­cal ambi­tions. Cen­tral to this is the “Russkiy Mir” or “Russ­ian World” doc­trine, which posits a transna­tion­al civ­i­liza­tion under Moscow’s spir­i­tu­al and polit­i­cal author­i­ty, a con­cept the ROC uses to deny Ukrain­ian sov­er­eign­ty and frame the inva­sion as a holy war. Domes­ti­cal­ly and abroad, the church bol­sters the regime by lever­ag­ing teach­ings on tra­di­tion­al val­ues to por­tray Rus­sia as a moral bul­wark against a deca­dent West, a nar­ra­tive that is also attract­ing new fol­low­ers in the West.

This fusion of church and state pow­er extends glob­al­ly through overt and covert means, with the ROC using its parish­es for espi­onage and intel­li­gence oper­a­tions. The church’s role in hybrid war­fare has become so pro­nounced it is trig­ger­ing offi­cial coun­ter­mea­sures in Europe, where its net­works are increas­ing­ly viewed as a threat to nation­al security.

Exter­nal References:

1. Why the Russ­ian Ortho­dox Church Sup­ports the War in Ukraine

2. The Russ­ian Church — Spread­ing Putin’s Poison

3. As Rus­sia Builds Influ­ence in Africa, its Church Takes a Role

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.