Strong influence through church: Who is Russian monk who was expelled from Skopje

Archimandrite Vasian was among the four people declared “non grata” by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Skopje a few days ago. His aim was to create a zone for activities in the interest of Moscow in Bulgaria and North Macedonia. Born Nikolai Valerievich Zmeev, Archimandrite Vasian, on March 25, 1975, Vasian has a rich biography – from rector of the Moscow Patriarchate Complex in Sofia to representative of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia in Belarus.

In 1998 he graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary, and in 2002 he graduated from the Theological Academy, also in Moscow. In 1999, he became a monk named Vasian in honor of a Russian saint and subsequently received all ecclesiastical ranks. On March 7, 2018, by decision of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archimandrite Vasian (Zmeev) was dismissed from the post of representative of the Patriarch of Moscow and Belarus and appointed head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in the city of Sofia.

Located in Sofia, Vasiani often visited Skopje. Not infrequently, in the churches of North Macedonia, prayers were held for all Russian soldiers killed in the war that began after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Seeing his malicious activities, North Macedonia banned him from entering the country, while in Bulgaria the issue of vigilance against these influences and the need for reforms in the service sector was also raised.

The 48-year-old Russian Archimandrite Vasian set off the alarm about the great influence of Russia in North Macedonia and Bulgaria through the most efficient channel – religious.

“By banning the entry of the Russian Archimandrite into our country, I believe that the Macedonian secular authorities primarily wanted to send a more direct message to some Macedonian bishops in the Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC-AO), that their relations with the Russian Orthodox Church have crossed the red line of impartiality and that this is already a major problem. “The state obviously wants to show MOC-AO in which geostrategic direction the cross it prays before should be directed,” journalist and religious scholar Branko Gjorgevski told DW in Macedonian.

In this context, President Stevo Pendarovski also warned against the great Russian influence in MOC-AO. In some cases, he has emphasized that “Russian elements are operating in the synod,” which was apparently not taken into account by the clergy.

Archimandrite Vasian has been living in Sofia for five and a half years. In 1953, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC) donated to the MOC the church of “St. Nicholas the Wonderworker” in Sofia, which became the courtyard of the Moscow Patriarchate. This year marks the 70th anniversary of this act.

Vasian’s activities on the occasion of this anniversary were the first to draw attention. Especially in December 2022, when the head of Russian church diplomacy, Metropolitan Antony of Volkolam, arrived in Sofia at his invitation. Then the Bulgarian Democratic Bulgaria (DB) party charged that Antony wanted to pressure the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to recognize MOC-AO with the status and name established in May 2022 by the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC). This pro-Western party warned at the time that the adoption of a pro-Serbian and pro-Russian position by the BOC could lead to serious diplomatic complications not only with other Orthodox churches, but also with the Greek state due to its control over the Ecumenical Patriarchate empowered to recognize new churches. But this Patriarch has made it a condition for MOC-AO not to use the name “Macedonian,” but to call itself only “Bishop of Ohrid.” This has created enough space for the ROC to put pressure on SOC and BOC to recognize MOC-AO and thus align the Macedonian clergy with Moscow.

Pro-Western parties in Sofia estimated that with Anton’s visit as a high-ranking representative of the ROC openly supporting Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Bulgaria is also compromised. They called on the State Agency for National Security (DANS) to impose a restrictive measure to ban Metropolitan Anton from staying on the territory of Bulgaria, since Russia had included Bulgaria in its list of hostile states. But this did not happen. Even a month later, Metropolitan Antony arrived in Skopje. On January 11 this year, the Archbishop of MOC-AO, Mr. Stefan, accompanied by Metropolitans Peter, Timothy and the Bishop of Heraklion, Mr. Kliment had a meeting with Metropolitan Anton, accompanied by Vasiani, the High Priest Nikolai Balashov and two other priests.

Vasian, first from the left during a meeting with MOC-AO in Skopje in April this year.

“It is the generator from which this structure is driven and which has several channels of communication with the Russian Church and whose influence was most evident in the decision of the MOC-AO not to recognize the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, to which the Ecumenical Patriarchate granted the recognition of autocephaly. This decision of the Macedonian bishops was a clear distancing from the Ecumenical Patriarchate and a step that supported Russian positions,” Gjorgjevski told DW. / The Geopost