This is the 4^th, however, not the final, episode of the FrolovLeaks saga. If this is your first encounter with this saga, we recommend looking up the previous episodes in the Hacktivism section.

Ukrainian Cyber Alliance (UCA) hacktivists shared with InformNapalm volunteer intelligence community a massive data dump from the mailbox of Kirill Frolov, Vice-Director of the Institute for CIS Countries, spokesman of the Union of Orthodox Citizens and “church-going expert”.

Frolov’s correspondence spans the period of 1997-2016, so we broke it down into several episodes. Of course, the most interesting parts are still ahead. In Episode IV, we are almost in 2011 and are exploring the “backstage” of fascinating schemes, recommendations “to become a Goebbels for the Patriarch”, manipulations in the top levels of power in Russia, attempts to influence the situation in Ukraine and recruit Ukrainian generals, as well as warmongering in Syria.

The complete dump of Kirill Frolov’s mail will be posted together with the last part of our series and will be available to anyone wishing to research it in more detail.

The original EML messages used in the preparation of this episode are available in the archive. The publication contains screenshots and attachments from those messages.

In Kirill Frolov’s dump, 2011 was marked with intensified merging between the church and the state in Russia, creation and promotion of new technologies of infiltration of the so-called “Russian world” into Ukraine, introduction of new agents of influence and continuous arguments and church-related conflicts, particularly, about the candidates to the Kharkiv and Kyiv cathedras which, key for the Ukrainian Orhtodox Church.

The tune of Russian influence over Ukraine is getting louder, for example: “In general, I do not understand this support of the subject of territorial integrity of Ukraine, deep inside I do not acknowledge Ukraine at all. Moreover, Patriarch Kirill does not acknowledge it, either (backstage he clearly says that the goal of his Patriarchial service is to merge Russia and Ukraine at the state level, not only in their spiritual unity)”.

Frolov prepares an analysis of the Russian domestic politics for the Patriarch and based on it composes a proposition on creating an analytical center to enhance the role of the Russian Orthodox Church as the factor capable of preventing revolutionary disturbances – super-vazhno, analytycheskyj-tsentr. On 21.03.11 he sends a memo on the political situation in Russia to the Patriarch – v-ponedelnyk. On 10.04.11 he stresses the necessity of issuing an ultimatum to then-mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin — vashe-svyatejshestvo-2: “We need 600 churches, not 60!” – at the same time noting “please pass on to PK – this has been approved. This is really confidential”. PK stands for Patriarch Kirill, but who issued the approval – the Presidential Administration, the Federal Security Service, the Party? Also in his correspondence, Frolov instructs the future Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and Mass Media of the Moscow Patriarchate (who was appointed to the position in 2015, probably, not without Frolov’s scheming recommendations), Vladimir Legoyda:

 “Seize the power over mass media, become a Goebbels for our spiritual Fuehrer – the Patriarch. The political situation is favorable – take one channel, one newspaper, a hundred websites both from the Putin’s crowd and from the Medvedev’s, and speak to one side about the other – these bastards have already given us one button, now give us two more, then we will switch over to your side. This is the language they understand, therefore, this rational approach will not obstruct their catechesis”.

Active measures were also taken in the Institute for CIS Countries where Frolov is responsible for Ukraine operations. For example, on January 26, 2011, the Institute hosted the Current problems of Russian movement in Ukraine seminar attended by leaders of the parties Russkoe Edinstvo (Russian Unity), Russkiy Block (Russian Bloc), non-governmental organizations Russkoe Sodruzhestvo (Russian Association) and Russkaya Obshchina Ukrainiy (Russian Community of Ukraine) — raspechat-zatulynu-rdu. Together with political expert Kirill Loginov, he writes a policy paper “for the top management” justifying the idea of the “Russian world”, the “Third Rome” and the politically active Orthodox Church as factors of Russian state modernizing — tretyj-rym-suverennaya-modernyzatsyya-doklad-supe-super-8. At the same time, in his message of July 31, 2011 he refers rather disrespectfully to his formal boss, Director of the Institute for CIS Countries Konstantin Zatulin: “In addition, he wants to be awarded a church order, come on, give uncle Kostia his bauble”, “Zatulin knows little about personnel matters. If I leave him, the Institute’s course may change to any direction” (September 2, 2011).

He continues active correspondence with Sergey Moiseev from Kharkiv, he sends the note written by Igor Massalov, a pro-Russian activist from Victor Medvedchuk’s team, where he mentions the marginalization of Mykhaylo Dobkin, then the Governor of Kharkiv Oblast, and offers rationale for the work areas — massalov-o-nekotoryh-napravlenyyah-gumanytarnoj-polytyky.

Of course, it is no coincidence that it was the organizations named by Moiseev here, for whom he solicits support, which played an active part in the attempted destabilization in Kharkiv in spring of 2014. He puts together a detailed file on them — spravka-po-obshhestvennym-organyzatsyyam. Particularly, on the leader of the Spasi i Sokhrani (Save and Protect) foundation: “When Vyacheslav Kartavykh worked in the district police department of Moskovsky District of Kharkiv, Gennadiy Kernes, the current mayor of Kharkiv, was a con artist playing shell games. In 1986, Kernes was caught in the theft of a gold chain. Then he agreed to become an informer for Kartavykh, a police officer who was then responsible for the agent network in the criminal circles. To escape a criminal sentence, Kernes agreed to cooperate, and was assigned the nickname Chertezhnik (Draftsman). Vyacheslav Ivanovych was one of the organizers of the Party of Regions network in Kharkiv region. When Gennadiy Kernes joined the Party of Regions, Kartavykh spoke against him as candidate for the position of the secretary of the city council, for which Vyacheslav Kartavykh was dismissed from the party and later accused of two attempted assassinations of Kernes. Also there were attempts to destroy Vyacheslav Kartavykh’s business in Kharkiv”.

Agents of influence in Ukraine.

In the end of 2010, a new trend can be seen in Frolov’s correspondence – he sends the most important materials and operational messages to D. Pakhomov <[email protected]>, Director of the Khristianskaya Solidarnost (Christian Solidarity) International Foundation. The messages bear such subjects as “attn. security service”, “to the top”, “attn. Grishin”. For example, on July 12, 2011: “In the Institute we have Safargaliyev the Wahhabi, Zatulin does not understand anything while Safargaliyev is bringing Wahhabis from Pakistan. The likes of him must be thrown out of the Institute, somebody has to speak to Zatulin”.

And this is the photo of Frolov and Pakhomov taken at the meeting with Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Public Associations and Religious Organizations S. Gavrilov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) which took place on December 7, 2016, which means that the well-developed mechanisms continue working even now.

This is what Frolov wrote about the Communists’ aspiration to control this Committee in 2011:

 “Important.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation requests that a Committee on Public Associations and Religious Organizations is established in the State Duma. They want to insert Deputy S. Obukhov in the Committee, this person is no friend of the Church. The United Russia wants R. Abdulatipov (a Muslim) to become the first deputy. There may be a representative of Islam in a special-purpose committee of the State Duma, however, not as first deputy and not in the situation when the committee chairman is a Communist. In the current situation, this is a slap in the face of the Orthodox faith.

There is still time to save the situation with negotiations at the top level”.

Moscow seriously discusses a project of replacing Metropolitan Nikodim (Rusnak) with Hilarion Alfeyev at the Kharkiv cathedra. Frolov sends a big letter to Alfeyev and other influential contacts with the information on Kharkiv, mentions non-governmental organizations Rus Triedinaya (Triune Russia) (chairman – S.V. Moiseyev), Pamyat Derzhavy (Memory of the Nation) (chairman – V.S. Proskurin), foundations Chest i Dostoinstvo (Honor and Dignity) (president – I.E. Massalov), Spasi i Sokhrani (Save and Protect) (chairman – V.I. Kartavykh) as well as Roditelskiy Komitet (Parent Committee) with priest Aleksandr Kanevsky as the leader referred to as a “long-term companion in the struggle, convinced supporter of the Russian world”, journalist – vashe-vysokopreosvyashhenstvo. Frolov also sends the same information to Pakhomov, probably, to be forwarded to the Federal Security Service.

On May 6 through 8 Patriarch Kirill visits Donetsk and Kharkiv, and Moiseev and Makarov are instructed to bring out people dressed in Drozdovsky movement uniform. Frolov sends them the following message: “You and Margelov’s people must by all means be there”, which means there were already organized and equipped groups.

Moiseev: “We are getting ready for the meeting. Today, the Margelov’s people are taking their oaths, they should be there too. What a surprise the Banderites are going to get”.

Frolov puts his stake on Moiseev: “Now the media will start quoting you as their source in Orthodox NGOs of Ukraine. We are going to actively promote you now. You should become a new Kaurov but without his mistakes”.

In the end of December, 2011, during the protests in Russia, Moiseev offered to use his thugs: “We announce that we are prepared to organize a friendship train to Moscow. I have already spoken to the Cossacks, Margelov followers, Chernobyl veterans. We can gather a crown of a thousand people, get a train from the Russian Railways, upon our arrival, the office of the Mayor of Moscow will supply buses and we will march with posters and flags, including imperial ones, covering Moscow with stickers on our way”.

Frolov gets coordinates with the FSB church appointments in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate via Pakhomov – avtobyografyya-ygum-venyamyn. This example refers to the Bishop Veniamin of Novi Sanzhary, Vicar of Poltava eparchy, vice-rector of Poltava Missionary Theological Seminary (Volodymyr Valentynovych Pogrebniy).

In Donetsk, Kharkiv and other cities, lots of pro-Russian and pro-imperial events were held by the same scenario. While the Kharkiv event commemorated Mikhail Drozdovsky, the one in Donetsk – Ivan Paskevich – v-donetske-vspomynaly-paskevycha.

Frolov promotes the idea of using the “Victory in World War II” as a unifying symbol of the post-USSR space. However, at the same time, he is consistently and, apparently, sincerely opposing the revival of Stalinism. Under his influence, Patriarch Kirill visits the General Staff where he meets with the high command and the generals of the Russian Armed Forces and makes a speech. As we can see from Frolov’s correspondence, the agenda included a discussion of “churching” of the Victory Day and introduction of the military chaplains, thus institutionalizing the influence of the church in the Russian aggressive defense and law enforcement agencies. This later resulted in the restoration of Stalinism and the use of the Church to justify Russia’s military crimes by clergymen blessing the missions to Ukraine and Syria. There is also some evidence of participation of several priests of the Russian Orthodox Church and Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in military actions and aiding the illegal armed groups.

Together with his accomplices, Frolov prepares a project of establishing an analytical center – Analytical center — 1 and develops the methods of using the Church’s potential for political purposes, for the benefit of the United Russia party – — All-Russia frontline-1; Working group for movements at the Synodal Department for Public and Media Relations of the Church — 1; Working_group_recommendations_4. One of his ideas (01.08.11): “The Patriarch’s plan includes establishing eparchies not matching the borders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. For example, an eparchy stretches over several districts of Rostov region and several districts of Luhansk region. The task is to override the borders between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus”.

Frolov lays down his plan of promoting Hilarion Alfeyev to the Kharkiv cathedra and writes him a message marked “strictly confidential”. However, if you study the dump closely, you will see that even before that, he sent the same message for the Patriarch, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Glazyev and FSB (via Pakhomov). Some “confidentiality” – when three know it, all know it. The same mailing pattern is used in many other cases, in one of his messages to Mikhail Kuksov, an assistant to the Patriarch, he even stresses that he appeals only to the Patriarch, that he has no ways to approach the government of the country, while in fact he sends the same proposal to a deputy for direct resolution (18.08.11). He is plotting and scheming behind the Patriarch’s back.

On June 15, in Odesa Metropolitan Agaphangel met S. Naryshkin, head of Russia’s Presidential Administration at the time. The main topic of their negotiations was Metropolitan Agaphangel’s attitude to the assignment of Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), Head of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, to Kharkiv and then to Kyiv. Frolov writes a note about it – On the results of the conversation of Head of the Administration of the President of Russia S, where he mentions such a promising area as work with young episcopate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, particularly, with such representatives of this episcopate as the Head of Cossack Department Bishop Iosif of Glukhiv (Maslennikov), Head of the Department of Pastoral Patronage of Afghanistan Veterans Bishop Feodosiy of Brovary (Snigirev). Once he abandons his project of Alfeyev’s promotion, Frolov immediately switches to promoting his trusted persons for the Council – Minister of Education Dmytro Tabachnyk, Andrey Novikov, Dimitry Sydor, Nikolay Donenko, Valerij Kaurov, Igor Markov, Valeriy Kovalyov, Sergey Moiseev, Valentin Lukyanik, Yevgeniy Maksymenko, Rector of Pochayiv Theological Seminary Archimandrite Nafanail (Krykota), Yuriy Yegorov.

After the death of Metropolitan Nikodim (Rusnak), Frolov proposes to fill the vacancy at the extremely important Kharkiv cathedra with Archbishop Ionafan (Yeletskykh) of Tulchyn whom he considers to be on his side. At the same time, due to the deteriorating health of His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir, Frolov considers different ways of strengthening the Russian influence – by neutralizing the supporters of separation of the Ukrainian church, exchange of priests (by sending Ukrainian priests to Russia at the same time filling Ukrainian parishes with Russian people), promotion of his influence agents – Metropolitan Agaphangel of Odesa, A. Novikov, Ye. Maksimenko and others.

Frolov is actively corresponding with the addressee of <[email protected]>. “Vladimir is in intensive care, this is the turning point when there is an opportunity to promote Agaphangel to the Primate”, “DV (Tabachnyk – G.B.) talked to His Holiness and stressed how much you personally had done to preserve the unity of the Russian Church and fighting against the orange lobby in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”.

“Sirius” is a person close to D. Tabachnyk, his co-author, historian, official, diplomat Viktor Voronin who is also one Frolov’s connections to FSB, besides Pakhomov. This is how Russian People’s Line describes their author:

Many issues are discussed with father Yevgeniy Maksimenko, a pro-Russian priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate who was expected to become the confessor of the runaway ex-President of Ukraine V. Yanukovych.

The following message refers to Yuriy Anatoliyovych Ladniy, a Ukrainian diplomat who since 2006 worked directly with V. Yanukovych, in 2011 was an adviser to the President of Ukraine, Head of the Chief Department for Constitutional and Legal Modernization of the Presidential Administration. Since 12.03.12 he has been member of the Supervisory Board of the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Frolov notices the emerging tensions between Putin and Patriarch Kirill and immediately suggests using them to strengthen the church power. He talks about a partnership between the church and the state, particularly, in the TV and movies industry – strictly confidential text. He does a lot of work to strengthen the position of the Church, suggests moving the Patriarch’s residence to the Kremlin, promotes turning the church into an element of the government machine: “In Russia – the “Third Rome” – the church must become the “factory of senses”, the center of their formation as well as the key institution of the civic society. It is both natural and appropriate that the Church expresses its position on all current issues of the state and social life. Only a socially active Church can perform a mission”. He proposes establishing an expert council under the auspices of the Patriarch and makes a list of its members including the following persons from Ukraine: Sergiy Kichigin, editor-in-chief of the “2000” newspaper, Dmytro Tabachnyk, Minister of Education and Science, Petro Tolochko, an academician, Volodymyr Kornilov.

The church in Ukraine is under constant pressure, for example: “Under the circumstances, the situation can be saved only by a call from a top secular person (all church channels have been used already) from Moscow guaranteeing that Metropolitan Agaphangel will not be dismissed from the cathedra if tomorrow he says what needs to be said. There must be a similar call regarding Metropolitan Onufriy of Chernovtsy. Otherwise, the autocephaly trends in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will become irreversible”.

Kirill Frolov interferes also with the affairs of the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church. In December, 2015, Vsevolod Chaplin was dismissed, however, the email dump of Frolov the “church-going expert” mentions his dismissal as early as in September, 2011, when he writes a note to the Patriarch with the following subject: “Eventual side effects of the decision on replacement of Head of the Synodal Department for Public and Media Relations of the Church in October, 2011”. He sends the same note to Chaplin, however, as a shortened version with the following passage removed: “The most probable scenario is the delay of the personnel decision regarding Head of the Synodal Department for Public and Media Relations of the Church until the spring of 2012, when the presidential and parliamentary elections campaigns will have been finished. Until then, the recommended solution is implementing a “probation period” during which father V. Chaplin will have to eliminate the existing drawbacks in his work. He is to be assisted in his activities (including political and media planning, organization of a regional network of eparchial departments for Church public relations) by auxiliary structures, including expert and analytical ones, as well as by additional approved persons”.

Frolov’s dump also mentions interference with the Ukrainian army. At the suggestion of A. Novikov, a pro-Russian priest from Odesa, Frolov was contacted by General Hryhoriy Pedchenko, then Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine. Frolov describes Pedchenko as follows: “One of the few people with pro-Russian views, an Orthodox member of the Moscow Patriarchate, his confessor is Archpriest Andrey Novikov, secretary of the Odesa eparchy, who is well-known for his anti-Bandera and strong pro-Moscow views. Pedchenko’s next political ambition is the position of Minister of Defense. This will serve Russia’s interests in view of the fact that the current Minister of Defense, Yezhel, has got exposed in provocations against Russian Black Sea Fleet. Pedchenko’s aide and authorized representative, General Vladimir Abrosimov is prepared to arrive to Moscow promptly” (the message contains an error in the name, the correct name is Pavel). Frolov attaches great significance to this contact and plans to arrange a meeting between the generals and Putin. Pavel Abrosimov did come for a visit, and on the negotiations outcome, Frolov develops an action plan for prevention of conclusion of the Free Trade Area Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, particularly, by influencing Yanukovych through the Church: “In this matter all available options must be used, including the underestimated ones. The first such option is the factor of fear. Yanukovych’s trusted persons must open his eyes to the fact that his rating drops faster than the stock indexes, faster than Yushchenko’s rating was dropping. However, contrary to Yushchenko, he is of no interest to anyone in the West, so his only destiny is trial and prison. His only savior is Russia”. On this matter, he writes to Viktor Voronin to support him within the FSB.

There is one more important text

Quote: “Another important achievement for Russia. Secretary of Metropolitan Agaphangel, Archpriest Andrey Novikov who is close to Patriarch Kirill, has become confessor of Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine, General Hryhoriy Pedchenko. Pedchenko requests a meeting with His Holiness and Naryshkin in January, 2012. This is a good chance of making Archpriest Andrey Novikov, a passionate supporter of Ukraine-Russia reunion, the confessor of Yanukovych, Azarov and Tabachnyk”.

He is making plans: “According to our sources in Odesa, Viktor Nusenkis is desperately trying to convince Patriarch Kirill of the absence of candidates to the position of Metropolitan of Kiev except Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk. Nusenkis refers to the position of V. Yanukovych. At the same time, after the service on November 23 in Kiev, Metropolitan Agaphangel of Odesa became a true popular hero among Orthodox believers of Kyiv. Moreover, they fear that if the choice is to be made between Hilarion and Onufriy, Onufriy will win. At the same time, if the choice is to be made between Agaphangel and Onufriy, Agaphangel will win which will be the best outcome for Russia.
In the current situation, I believe that the opinion of the President and the Prime Minister of Russia in favor of Metropolitan Agaphangel should outweigh the opinion of Yanukovych and Nusenkis. If absolutely necessary, there may be a compromise – Metropolitan Agaphangel becomes the Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archbishop Ionafan (Yeletskykh) – Head of the Department of External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Andrey Novikov – Head of the Department for Church Public Relations which has to be created within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Also he has to be given the cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate at the Verkhovna Rada, which is currently served by some mediocrity, while Novikov could actively promote the pro-Russian views”.

Before the council of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on 20.12.13, he is trying to promote Agaphangel and Novikov through the Patriarch – Your Holiness-nov.

The messages suggest that there is a direct channel of influencing Yanukovych, someone close to him, and the influence is exercised not only at the rational level, but also through fear at the psychological level. However, the influencing person’s name is never mentioned in the analyzed part of the dump.

In November, 2011, the Patriarch flies to Syria where peaceful protests have been going on for the previous six month met by savage crackdowns by the government. On the occasion of this visit, Frolov writes the following note: “Patriarch Kirill’s pastoral visit to Syria is especially vital “here and now”, because those who seek to establish a “new world order” where, by the way, there will be no place for Russia (“a small republic on the ruins of Russia” is a colony), seek to bring down the President of Syria Bashar al-Assad, a friend and partner of Russia. If he suffers the fate of Gaddafi, the Islamists supported by the “Washington Central Committee” will not leave alone either the Patriarchate of Antioch or the Russian Navy base in Syria. So, the Patriarch’s visit to Syria is extremely important, it is not just a “protocol visit” but a visit of a spiritual leader about to change the course of the world history for the better”.

Now we know what this interference with the course of history brought. The entire world shuddered at the Aleppo events which had started in a seemingly innocent manner, with a visit of the Patriarch…

To be continued.

Disclaimer

Evidence data was exclusively provided to InformNapalm by the hacktivists of the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance for analysis and processing. InformNapalm Community bears no responsibility for the sources and origin of the data.

This publication was prepared by Giordano Bruno  

Translated by InformNapalm English

(CC BY) Information specially prepared for InformNapalm.org site, an active link to the authors and our project is obligatory for any reprint or further use of the material.