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| Neighbourhood, Chatham House, at 26 (Apr. 2016). 317 Ibid. at 26. 318 Ibid. at 25-26; Gabriela Baczynska & Tom Heneghan, How the Russian Orthodox Church Answers Putin’s Prayers in Ukraine Reuters, Oct. 6, 2014; US. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, ‘‘Ukraine-related Designations Mar. 20, 2014; US. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, Issuance of a New Ukraine-related Executive Order and General License Ukraine-related Designations Dec. 19, 2014. Sam Jones et al., NATO Claims Moscow Funding Anti-Fracking Groups Financial Times, June 19, 2014. Andrew Higgins, In Expanding Russian Influence, Faith Combines with Firepower The New York Times, Sept. 13, 2016. Brian Whitmore, ‘‘Putinfellas,’’ Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, May 3, 2016 (citing Karen Dawisha, Putin’s Kleptocracy Who Owns Russia Simon & Schuster, Sept. 2015). 322 Ilya Zaslavskiy, Corruption Pipeline the Threat of Nord Stream 2 to EU Security and De- mocracy, Free Russia, at 4 (2017). thrusts.’’ 314 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also used Kirill to promote a relativistic view of human rights at the United Nations, arranging for him to give a speech in 2008 (before he was Patriarch) at the UN Human Rights Council, where he bemoaned that there is a strong influence of feministic views and homosexual attitudes in the formulation of rules, recommendations and programs inhuman rights advocacy.’’ 315 According to a report by Chatham House, in Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia, Orthodox parent committees, modelled on similar Russian Orthodox committees, have launched attacks on LGBT and feminist groups. 316 These committees claim that gender equality is a Western construct intended to spread homosexuality in Eastern Europe, blaming the United States and the EU for the decay of moral health in the respective societies.’’ 317 The Russian Orthodox Church also enjoys strong financial backing from Kremlin-linked oligarchs Konstantin Malofeev and Vladimir Yakunin, who are both under US. sanc- tions. 318 In Bulgaria and Romania, the Kremlin even allegedly co- opted Orthodox priests to lead anti-fracking protests. 319 In Moldova, senior priests have worked to halt the country’s integration with Europe (leading anti-homosexual protests and even claiming that new biometric passports for the EU were satanic because they had a digit number, and priests in Montenegro led efforts to block the country from joining NATO. 320 THE NATIONALIZATION OF ORGANIZED CRIME During his time in St. Petersburg in the s, Putin allegedly collaborated with two major organized crime groups to assert control over the city’s gambling operations, helped launder money and facilitated travel for known mafia figures, had a company run by a crime syndicate provide security for his Ozero (Lake) house cooperative, and helped that criminal organization gain a monopoly over St. Petersburg’s fuel deliveries. 321 According to a report by scholar Ilya Zaslavskiy, the latter operation would teach Putin useful skills that he could later use at the national level, including monopolization of the downstream energy market, management of the city’s oil and gas assets through nominal front men and offshore accounts, and the use of ex-Stasi and other Warsaw Pact operatives in energy schemes across Europe.’’ 322 VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00060 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 55 Mark Galeotti, Crimintern: How the Kremlin Uses Russia’s Criminal Networks in Europe, European Council on Foreign Relations, at 1 (Apr. 2017); Brian Whitmore, ‘‘Putinfellas,’’ Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, May 3, 2016. Peter Hobson, How Europe Became a Russian Gangster Playground The Moscow Times, May 12, 2016. 325 Ibid. The arrest warrants were later thrown out, reportedly because some of the named individuals were cooperating with the investigation. 326 Download 0.63 Mb. Share with your friends:
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