Russian intelligence is exploring how to use the monarchy’s potential in Russia to further its interests abroad.
Putin’s entourage is seeking to set up alternative interaction channels with the West via the European monarchies.
According to diplomatic sources, one of the providers for such monarchical diplomacy is Georgy Yourievsky, who calls himself the last living great-grandson of the Russian Emperor in a straight male line via the cadet descendants of Emperor Alexander II.
stammbaum4He is also an honorary member of the ACRN Association, a non-profit association set up to boots links between France and Russia. Another active member is Prince Alexander Trubetskoy, who lives in Paris. He is the executive chairman of the Franco-Russian Dialogue, and heads Russia’s Society for the Memory of the Imperial Guard. From the 1980s, he has been working hand in glove with the Russian Gazprom. Yuryevsky is also tied to Gazprom, as Oleg Goncharenko, Head of Directorate at Gazprom Export, attended his wedding in 2013.
Georgy Yourievsky is supposed to set up a political bridge between the Kremlin and the British royal family. The Kremlin hopes this game plan will mend relations between Russia and Great Britain, and the aristocratic families in Europe.
The plan is to make the Great Russian Orthodox Priory of the Order of Malta a platform for uniting the European aristocrats, and foreign business circles, based on membership in a privileged Masonic-type club that has the history and tradition.
Looking ahead, Yourievsky is to set up a network of territorial offices, both in Europe and in North America, with a branch to be opened in Montenegro with the help of Crown Prince Nicholas, Grand Master of the dynastic orders of Prince Daniel I and St. Peter of Cetinje.
Georgy Yourievsky‘s project site that has appeared on the web is unusual as it emphasizes that aristocratic origin is not necessary for the members of this Order.
That is why that project is most likely to be used to grant titles to foreigners, involving them in corruption schemes in various business projects, including in Russia. Yuryevsky’s activity excludes the scenario when the monarchy in Russia might be restored. But Georgy Yourievsky’s initiative will bring additional confrontation to the Romanov Imperial Family.
Russian oligarch Malofeev, who is close to Russia’s Defense Ministry, takes care of another representative – Maria Romanova. Thus, Georgy Yourievsky is obviously used by another wing in the Russian government – foreign intelligence headed by Sergei Naryshkin, whose family line goes back to the mother of Peter the Great Natalya Naryshkina. As a result, Georgy Yuryevsky might have a potential for setting up a platform to lobby Sergei Naryshkin’s interests in the context of power transit in Russia, and engage diplomatically via aristocrats to further the Kremlin’s interests. Historically, Naryshkin’s two ancestors were members of the Great Russian Priory in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
That is the second such structure being created in Russia. Count Peter Sheremetev is the Grand Prior of the Grand Russian Priory of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Since 2012, he has been Chairman of the Presidium of the International Council of Russian Compatriots and Vice President of the Federation of Russian Parties in Europe, frequently used by Russia in intelligence missions.
The Daily Beast says the American branch of the Russian Compatriots Coordinating Council in the United States was investigated by the FBI. The sources reported that dozens of people associated with the organization were interrogated under the investigation in the United States, as their homes and offices were searched. This Council is run by the Russian embassy that also appoints its leaders.
The Federation of Russian Parties in Europe includes four existing Russian parties of the EU (Association for Human Rights in United Latvia, Union of Russians in Lithuania, Russian Party of Estonia, Party for the Defense of Russophonia of France). All those “parties” were created by Moscow to further its interests in Europe and exist solely due to its financial support.
Aside from that, Sheremetev is the honorary chairman of the European Russian Alliance.
The European Russian Alliance was established following the unsuccessful attempt by Russian intelligence to set up the first all-European party, tentatively named the Russian Party of Europe. It was impossible to launch a united Russian-European party at that time, as it was not supported by Russian emigrants. As a result, the ERA survived as a social movement.In Latvia, the European Russian Alliance is headed by Tatyana Zhdanok, the first Russian MEP and the Leader of the Latvian Russian Union party, investigated by the Latvian State Security Service on charges of inciting ethnic hatred or enmity. In 2016, Zhdanok visited Beirut, where she met with the leaders of Hezbollah, the terrorist pro-Iranian group Moscow works with in the Middle East. On the trip, Zhdanok met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as part of Russia’s campaign to whiten the image of the Syrian dictator.
In September 2021, Zhdanok made efforts to release her European Russian Forum colleague Algirdas Paleckis, convicted of «spying on behalf of the Russians». It is noteworthy that Zhdanok also strongly pushed for releasing her allies from Catalonia, Oriol Zhunkeras and Raul Romev, who are serving a sentence in a Spanish prison for separatism. Among her contacts there is also Polish MP Mateusz Andrzej Piskorski, who monitored the illegal referendum during the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and was detained in 2016 by law enforcement on charges of collaborating with Russian intelligence against the Polish Republic, furthering Russia’s interests and shaping Polish public sentiment.
In Cyprus, ERA is represented by Natalya Kardash who is also a member of the World Association of Russian Press, created and funded by the Russian government under the guise of the ITAR-TASS agency and the Russian Press Institute public charity, affiliated with Russia’s Federal Security Service.
Natalya Kardash and her publishing house get money from another Kremlin-run fund, Russkiy Mir.
The Russkiy Mir Foundation, established by Putin’s decree in 2007, is the most powerful Russia’s NGO to influence the emigratns. Founded by Russia’s Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Science and Education, it is chaired by Vyacheslav Nikonov, an intelligence general. In 1991-1992, Nikonov was an assistant to the chairman of the Soviet KGB, Bakatin.
In such a way, the institutions affiliated with Russian aristocrats and the imperial family abroad are associated or implicated in the activity by Russian intelligence. The actors tied with them take part in propaganda, further the Kremlin’s interests, and support pro-Russian and subversive groups abroad. They form the basis for recruiting members of the Russian diaspora in Europe and the United States.
