Analysis

Russia’s Troubling Church Takeover

The Kremlin is leveraging tsarist-era assets to expand its global influence. September 19, 2025, 3:00 PM Comment icon View Comments ( )

A figure in a hat is seen from behind in silhouette as they walk down a tree-lined path toward a turreted church beneath a blue sky.

In April, after an extended legal battle, Russia won control of the Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas and St. Alexandra in the southern French city of Nice. This was not an unprecedented victory. In 2010, Russia took over the city’s St. Nicholas Cathedral , the second largest Orthodox church in Western Europe, using similar mechanisms in French law. After doing so, the Russian state turned both buildings over to the Moscow Patriarchate.

While over a decade separate

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