Submitted by S P (United States), Jan 9, 2009 at 20:31
The Russian government has been hostile to the Saudi government since the Saudis' anti-Communist days. The Russians would doubtless like a political concession that would allow them to extend their intelligence networks, in churches, into Saudi Arabia:
http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/putin_espionage_church.html
http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/preobrazhenskiy_americans_woken_up.html
http://www.monasterypress.com/hightreason.html
The Russian government poses as Christian for political ends, and the goal of its "neo-Eurasianist" ideology is a return to bolshevism with increased cooperation between Russia and Islam:
http://vertograd-eng.blogspot.com/2005/09/mit-konstantine-preobrazhensky-laurus.html
http://www.arctogaia.com/public/eng-bol.htm
http://www.arctogaia.com/public/eng-ed2.htm
http://www.globalpolitician.com/24333-russia
The Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia are tools of the FSB/SVR, formerly KGB:
http://www.demokratizatsiya.org/Dem%20Archives/DEM%2001-04%20armes.pdf
http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/putin_espionage_church.html
The Russian Orthodox "clergy" have promised not to proselytize historically Muslim peoples of Russia, and they support the domestic outlawing of the term "Islamic extremism", asserting that terrorists have no religion:
http://religion.sova-center.ru/publications/194EF5E/9288FDA?print=on
Al-Qaeda has been supported by the FSB as well as by Russian military intelligence (GRU):
http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/russia_islam_not_separate.html
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/12/19/232008.shtml
Hezbollah has received GRU assistance also:
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=32178
The Russian authorities act against domestic Wahhabists, but appear not to fear other jihadists on their territory:
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=30811
Hezbollah is allowed to proselytize ethnic Russians in Moscow and in St. Petersburg via its organization The Prophet's Family:
http://www.axisglobe.com/hezbollah3.htm
Russians and jihadists share the determination to destroy the United States, and Russian government churches meant to contribute to the eventual displacement of the Wahhabi rulers, by neo-Salafis who would starve the United States of Saudi petroleum, could serve that end.
Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.