Honestly, I would not be posting about this piece of journalistic pornography if I did not feel it needs a proper trashing.

French court apparently upheld Russian states claim to the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Nice which is currently used by the Paris Jurisdiction (AKA Rue Daru where its central Cathedral is located), an emigre group that split from the main of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1930's, during the period of Stalinist repressions, when it joined the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate and never returned back to its Mother-Church. Many of its representatives still seem to live in the days of Stalinism as you will see further below. Here is some background on the case... 

The Nice Russian Orthodox Cultural Association (ACOR), which managed the church under a 99-year lease it signed with the czarist regime in 1909, had maintained that it effectively inherited the cathedral when Russia's royal family was executed during the revolution. But the court upheld the Russian government's position that since the czarists had bought the land and built the church using state money, the cathedral remains the property of the Russian government, meaning that Moscow could legally reclaim it now that ACOR's lease has expired. Decades of Soviet uninterest in the property, the court decided, did not undermine Russia's entitlement to it today.

There would be nothing wrong with Russian state wanting to reclaim its cultural possessions abroad, the case is pretty logical. Only this would have to be somewhere else than the wacky world named Rue Daru.

It's a tradition that goes back to Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, in which political leaders used symbols of Russian grandeur — including an entirely submissive church — to create greater support for the regime,' says Jean Gueit, rector of the Nice cathedral. 'Russian society has been so disoriented and adrift following the changes of the past 20 years that Putin is playing the old nationalist game to snap people out of it by responding to simplistic messages and emotions. Part of that is rebuilding the equally shattered Russian Orthodox Church and help it snatch up all these parishes abroad

Oh yes Putin is Ivan the Terrible first and Peter the Great second. I guess Putin should be murdering Metropolitans and abolishing the institution of Patriarchate right about now. Jean Gueit who is the only voice in the article might also explain how rebuilding of the Russian Orthodox Church is responding to simplistic messages? Why is it wrong to bring estranged parishes back into the Mother-Church they once belonged to?

Indeed, the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas is not the only prize catching Moscow's eye. Last year Italy agreed to cede ownership of a similarly spectacular cathedral in Bari to the Russian Orthodox Church, and the year before that, Paris did the same with a cathedral there. And last October, Israel agreed to turn over a building in Jerusalem known as 'Sergei's Courtyard' that was constructed in 1890 to accommodate Russian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Moscow is also currently in a legal battle over control of London's St. Andrews Cathedral, home to a large Orthodox congregation.

It would be joy if Rue Daru was awarded to Moscow and its sectarian occupants removed, but this paragraph has holes in it which make it dubious. For instance the legal battle is not over London's St. Andrews Cathedral. St. Andrews Cathedral is a Greek Orthodox institution in Kentish Town which has no relation to Russia. If they had such a high profile dispute with Russia they would have no doubt publicised it on their website, which they don't. Google which the 'smart' journalists should have used doesn't produce any such results either. What it does however produce is that a the dispute is over the Cathedral of the Dormition and All Saints and that a group of schismatics that joined Rue Daru in 2006 [see here for more info] now congregates in a rented Anglican church of St. Andrew. I would not even quote the paragraph that follows this one since it is totally hopeless.

The Nice congregation isn't planning to rejoin the Russian church anytime soon. In fact, Gueit says the congregation wants to stake out an independent, pan-Orthodox position by breaking with the Constantinople Patriarchate too. He hopes to then attract other congregations to his nonaligned movement — whether he has a cathedral to use as his base or not.

I wish them good luck with that, unfortunately for them it was the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate that had so far provided them with legitimacy.

According to Voices from Russia where I came across this article thinks that what is behind these baseless proclamations is the fear of losing revenues from the 85, 000 turist visiting the church every year.