Ekaterina Blinova of Sputnik News reported that the government in Kyiv inked an agreement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) last year about the removal of Orthodox Christian treasures from the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra site. The location is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is deemed one of the most sacred sites by the UOC. According to Blinova, the agreement was signed amid ongoing acts of repression against Orthodox priests in Ukraine over their alleged ties to Russia.
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) noted that the agreement involves the aforementioned treasures – including holy relics – from the site. These would be transferred to museums in Italy, France, Germany and the Vatican ostensibly to "save them from Russian missile strikes."
The Wall Street Journal revealed in a January report that 16 of the rarest Orthodox Christian icons had been removed from the Khanenko National Museum of Arts in Kyiv. These were then secretly transferred to France via Poland and Germany in May. Some of these were even put on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris, the outlet added.
Blinova's report came days after the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, approved a law banning the UOC. Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak confirmed the law's passage on Aug. 20. According to Russia Today, 256 lawmakers voted in favor of the proposal, 29 voted against it and four abstained. (Related: Ukrainian parliament approves law BANNING the country's biggest Orthodox church.)
The proposal officially banned the UOC in the country, alongside the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and all religious institutions affiliated with it. However, the UOC had earlier declared full autonomy from the ROC several weeks after the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022.
Globalist linked to Soros and neocons involved in the plunder of UOC's treasures
According to the SVR, the transfer of the icons from Kyiv to Paris was arranged by the International Alliance for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Conflict Zones (ALIPH). American business leader Thomas Kaplan, who served as ALIPH's chairman at the time, oversaw the transfer. The art collector is a private donor to the foundation and also sits on its board.
Blinova wrote in her piece for Sputnik News that Kaplan boasts a prominent collection of paintings by Dutch painter Rembrandt. But aside from this, he also appears to be heavily involved in politics. Moreover, Kaplan has also received substantial amounts from more prominent globalists.
Kaplan rose to prominence as a natural resources investor who received financial backing from Hungarian globalist billionaire George Soros. The $10 million "seed money" provided by Soros enabled Kaplan to establish Apex Silver Mines in the 1990s. While it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, it emerged from that rut under the new name of Golden Minerals.
In 2010, Soros and American billionaire John Paulson invested a combined $175 million in Canadian mining firm NovaGold Resources. The move to invest in NovaGold – which had almost zero revenues – followed the lead of Kaplan.
Kaplan and French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy established in 2018 the nonprofit Justice for Kurds, which ostensibly challenged the interests of Tehran and Ankara under the guise of fighting for the Kurdish people. But according to Sputnik News, Levy appears to be cut from the same cloth as Soros and other globalists.
Levy gained fame for his support of the Maidan Uprising, which destabilized the government of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and led to his 2014 ouster. He also backed other "color revolutions" and supported the bombings of Yugoslavia and Libya.
Meanwhile, the globalist Kaplan is a top donor to the neoconservative United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). The nonprofit founded in 2008 seeks to prevent Iran from becoming a regional nuclear power through tough sanctions. Tehran announced in 2019 that it would designate UANI as a terrorist group.
Kaplan contributed a whopping $843,000 to UANI in 2013 alone. This donation did pay off as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) quashed a civil lawsuit against Kaplan and UANI that year over claims that it could undermine national security. Observers at the time called the DOJ's move "unprecedented."
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Watch this video about Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine's Chief Rabbi Yaakov Bleich planning to ban the UOC.
This video is from the Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.
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