Initially this was supposed to be a story about the mythical figure of Vladika Iakov, the Orthodox bishop who holds the northernmost parish in the world, in the western Russian Arctic. But because of the war in Ukraine, I found myself trapped in another story.
Mine has become a "hunt" to discover that Iakov is Russian Patriarch Kirill's right-hand man, as his superior is possibly a former KGB, and certainly belongs to that small circle of high prelates who support Vladimir Putin's war.
My journalistic experience helps to understand, through the figure of this disturbing bishop-ideologue, how the Orthodox Church fueled the idea of the return of Russian imperialism and supremacism, and how religion is a crucial component of the clash unleashed by Moscow against Ukraine and Western democracy.
