Secular Name: Michael Arndt
Date of birth: January 29, 1941
Place of birth: Saxony, Germany
Position/title:
- Metropolitan of Berlin and Germany
- First Deputy Chairman of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
Countries of influence: Germany
Brief Biography
Metropolitan Mark of Berlin and Germany (Michael Arndt), 82, was born and raised in Germany. As a young man he learned Russian and studied at the theological faculty in Belgrade, Serbia. Mark has always had an affinity for Moscow, although he was formally a member of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), which retained some independence.
Michael Arndt is considered the ideologist and main initiator of the takeover of the Russian Orthodox Church by the Moscow Patriarchate, for which he is highly regarded in Moscow, serving on various advisory bodies of the Russian Orthodox Church. The ROCA web site published a notice from the Synod of Bishops ordering that the name of Metropolitan Mark be mentioned after Patriarch Kirill of Moscow during services in ROCA churches.
Agent activity
Metropolitan Mark is playing along with Russian propaganda regarding Ukraine. In particular, at the end of 2022, he accused the Ukrainian authorities of “persecuting” the church. “All of this shows that Ukraine is very far from being a democratic state and that we are on the threshold of a new persecution of Christians in this country,” Metropolitan Mark said.
At the same time, the metropolitan did not say a word about the support of the Russian Orthodox Church, in particular its boss Gundyaev, for the war of aggression against Ukraine.
This behavior of the metropolitan can be explained by the fact that many years ago he may have been recruited by the “KGB”. For example, former KGB lieutenant colonel Konstantin Preobrazhensky recalls in his memoirs that in 1979 Mark was detained by the KGB while crossing the Soviet border for importing anti-Soviet literature. This was considered a particularly dangerous state crime and he was facing a lot of jail time. But after a while they let him go. Therefore, there is a strong possibility that Mark was recruited by the intelligence services.
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