The Swedish church at the centre of a Russian spy drama

The Russian Orthodox Church is accused of being an 'active tool' of Moscow's 'soft power'

Photo collage of a Russian Orthodox church spire. The crosses have been replaced by a pole with CCTVS cameras on it
(Image credit: Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images)

Swedish intelligence services believe that one of the country's Russian Orthodox churches could be a base for spying.

Almost everything about the "onion-domed" church beside Västerås Airport, about an hour from Stockholm, "seems odd", said France 24.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.