Hybrid «war» with orthodoxy: features of the Baltic front

Abstract

Since February 2022, the entire architecture of international relations and the security situation have changed, primarily in the Eastern European and Scandinavian-Baltic directions, where multi-vector hybrid anti-Russian actions have unfolded, they have affected the very sensitive area of religion and freedom of conscience. The purpose of the article is to analyze the situation of Russian Orthodoxy in the Baltic countries: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, under pressure from the executive authorities of these states and their ideological and financial support for parallel structures of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The article examines the strategy of the Baltic states’ aggressively secularist policy towards Russian Orthodoxy in the Baltics, on the one hand, and the methods of self-preservation of Orthodox communities, on the other. The concept of the «Russian world» is subjected to particularly fierce criticism by opponents of Russian Orthodoxy, Patriarch Bartholomew and the Baltic political elites, which is seen as a justification for possible expansion, which is so frightening to the average European. It is noted that horizontal civil interaction, which has been forming for decades, interfaith cooperation and faith help the Orthodox to survive in the conditions of hybrid threats.

Keywords

• baltic-scandinavian macroregion
• lithuania
• latvia
• estonia
• religion
• orthodoxy
• freedom of conscience
• security