Russian involvement on Mount Athos didn't draw attention until Russia invaded Ukraine

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Mount Athos on the Athos peninsula in northern Greece may be the holiest site in all of Orthodox Christianity. The region is semi-independent from Greece. Locals refer to it as a monastic republic. And the monks who live there control their own finances, which can make it very attractive for Russians who want to convert rubles to euros. NPR's Julian Hayda reports from Greece.

UNIDENTIFIED CHORUS: (Singing in non-English language).

JULIAN HAYDA, BYLINE: Nearly two dozen monasteries cling to the sides of Mount Athos, ancient buildings peppered with cupolas rise high above the Aegean Sea and are dwarfed only by the holy mountain rising in the background. Inside, monks from around the world keep a rigid schedule of work and prayer, mostly inside of richly frescoed churches.

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UNIDENTIFIED DEACON: (Praying in non-English language).

HAYDA: You'd think they'd be chanting in Greek, but you're just as likely to hear Russian here, sometimes of a distinctly political nature. This video posted by one monastery has a deacon chanting prayers for, quote, "our revered president, Vladimir Putin, his government and military." Russian President Vladimir Putin and his friends frequently visited the monasteries on Mount Athos. And among many Russians, it is revered not only as a place of meditation but for some more earthly reasons, too.

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PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: (Non-English language spoken).

HAYDA: During a 2016 visit, Putin said he was proud to have funded a lot of the projects on Mount Athos. Cyril Hovorun knows quite a bit about Athos and Russia. And he has some thoughts about why Putin may be interested in investing there.

CYRIL HOVORUN: (Non-English language spoken).

HAYDA: I meet him 90 miles south of Athos at a sunny seaside cafe in the Greek town of Volos. He drifts seamlessly between Ukrainian, Greek, Russian and English, which is very useful if you want to stay abreast of wartime European geopolitics. But there's something else that makes him uniquely qualified to follow the money in this case. He's a priest - an archimandrite, actually, which is a prestigious title he was given for years of service to the Russian Orthodox Church.

HOVORUN: The Russian intentions are not pure. They are not philanthropic.

HAYDA: But for the better part of a decade, he's researched some of the coercive tactics the Russian church has made with its allies, like sending money to Greece with strings attached.

HOVORUN: Some monasteries have a justification for themselves that, well, we may receive this Russian money in order to do some charitable work. And some of them - sometimes they do. But still, this money is dirty. And this is a bribe.

HAYDA: Archbishop Job Getcha is a high-ranking official in the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the institution that oversees Mount Athos.

JOB GETCHA: In Russia, many oligarchs, they are quite used to use the church as a way of laundering the money.

HAYDA: He says fake construction contracts and donation schemes are common.

GETCHA: Knowing their practices, I wouldn't be surprised that they do the same on Mount Athos.

HAYDA: Russian involvement on Mount Athos didn't draw much attention until Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Under a new EU sanctions regime, Greece's money laundering authority took a critical look at Russian finances flowing into the monasteries. Last fall, the government found dozens of wire transfers from Russia, many in the range of six to seven figures.

THANASSIS MARTINOS: Certainly, the monks are not involved in illegal activities.

HAYDA: That's Thanassis Martinos (ph), the government-installed law enforcement administrator on Mount Athos. He says there's no reason to investigate Mount Athos.

MARTINOS: I think it's a gross exaggeration. The monks are devoted to their religious functions. I mean, they are quiet. I think they pray for peace.

HAYDA: But Martinos is also the owner of one of Greece's largest shipping companies, Minerva Marine. Last year, Ukraine named Minerva Marine as a, quote, leading "sponsor of terrorism" for shipping millions of barrels of Russian oil to market.

YANNIS SOULIOTIS: (Non-English language spoken).

HAYDA: Greek journalist Yannis Souliotis from the daily newspaper Kathimerini broke the Mount Athos money laundering story. He says that wealthy Russians panicked when the EU began to sanction Russia. And even though none of the people flagged by the Greek money laundering authority are sanctioned because of the war, there's no way of knowing if that money changed hands within Russia before getting sent to Greece. Souliotis says that there were documented cases of sanctioned Russians doing similar transactions before Russia invaded Ukraine last year. NPR also spoke with the Greek money laundering authority, as well as officials close to the church. They all said Russian money is a known issue.

GETCHA: In many ecclesiastical institutions, the finances are very opaque.

HAYDA: Archbishop Job again.

GETCHA: But they will show you what they want to show.

HAYDA: The monasteries on Mount Athos are not required to file financial reports with the Greek government. And Greece's money laundering authority does not have the staff to investigate suspicious financial activity on Athos.

ALEXANDROS MASSAVETAS: Churches are basically structured like mafia organizations.

HAYDA: Investigative journalist Alexandros Massavetas (ph) wrote a book on Russia's influence in Greek society through the church.

MASSAVETAS: Church appeared as a very convenient Trojan horse to influence and sway Greek society towards Russia's ends.

HAYDA: He points to one example, a number of influential pro-Kremlin media outlets based on Mount Athos monasteries, including one affiliated with Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev, who was sanctioned by the U.S. and EU for funding the war in eastern Ukraine.

MASSAVETAS: We were suddenly flooded with internet pages which sort of functioned like Putin's speakers.

HAYDA: Russia still remains relatively popular in Greece compared to how other EU countries view Moscow. Massavetas says that social divide in Greece is perhaps why the political will to look into potential money laundering or sanctions evasion just isn't there.

HOVORUN: I call sometimes Putin a master of cracks.

HAYDA: Backed by the Greek seaside, Father Cyril Hovorun says that sort of Greek ambivalence is something that Russia has excelled at exploiting.

HOVORUN: So he tries to find a crack within a given social body, a society, and tries to widen those cracks.

HAYDA: And the European sanctions regime is just one crack that's widening.

Julian Hayda, NPR News, Athens.

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