Archpriest Alexander Novopashin, Russian correspondent member of the FECRIS (European Federation of Centres for Research and Information on Sects and Cults[1]), recently called Ukrainian “Nazis”, “Satanists” and “cannibals”. On July 20, in a lengthy interview for his birthday, he continued supporting the war in Ukraine, in a quite pro-Kremlin paranoid rhetoric:
“Russia has always been a bone in the throat of the United States, Great Britain and their satellites. They spared no expense to weaken our country, divide the peoples, and ultimately take over our territory, our natural resources. All these years, we managed to hold back their onslaught, to more or less effectively resist”, he answered to the question “what do you think is the main threat that our country is currently fighting?”
In the straight line of Patriarch Kirill and the Kremlin, he considers the war to be done for “protecting Russian civilization, protecting the Russian world.”
Again, even inside Russia, Novopashin considers there are threats that are not sufficiently addressed by the authorities. These threats are what he calls cults, citing Pentecostals and neo-pagans. “Such associations are under the scrutiny of Western intelligence agencies (usual rhetoric from FECRIS). They even get financial help. To then use for their own purposes. For example – I have said this more than once and will say it again – it is reliably known that neo-pagan and neo-Pentecostal organizations took an active part in the “orange revolution” of 2004 and the “Euromaidan” of 2014 in Kyiv”.”
Talking about his anti-cults center called The Information and Advisory Center for Sectarianism at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, an affiliate organization linked to FECRIS, Novopashin said: “has been one of the most famous centers of its kind in the country for many years. They call us and come not only from the city and the region, but also from other cities and regions. Questions about sects are also addressed from the “other side”, from abroad. Nothing has changed in our work over the past quarter of a century.”
Praising Vladimir Putin for his support to the Russian Orthodox Church, Novopashin reminded that: “[Putin] repeatedly speaks of the need to protect the traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, the bearer of which for more than two thousand years has been the Russian Orthodox Church. It, the Church, is assigned a certain role in countering extremism and terrorism.” This discourse about the sportection of “spiritual values is not without reminding the Nazi Heydrich directive (Nuremberg D-59) in 1937, which refered to a list of “Cults” to be destroyed by the Reich in order to protect the “spiritual health” of German citizens.
Vladimir Putin must have been pleased with Novopashin, because by decree of the President of the Russian Federation of July 15, 2022, for his great contribution to the preservation and development of spiritual, moral and cultural traditions, as well as many years of fruitful activity, Archpriest Alexander Novopashin was awarded the Order of Friendship.
[1] FECRIS is a French-based umbrella organization that coordinates with member associations in more than 40 EU countries, and beyond. It was created in 1994 by a French anti-cult association named UNADFI and receives all of its funding from the French government
