Having known about this story last month as it was reported by Australian media, we immediately felt that there was more to the case. There was to much oddities in it. And it just smelled with injustice. To say that a 67 years old refugee from Russia was convicted, this already provokes suspicions. To add, he is a clergyman and claims to have a KGB experience, so we just can’t ignore this story!

The refugee’s name is bishop Vincent Berg. His Eminence kindly agreed to answer our questions, for which we are very grateful to hi, because we found it very important for this story to be told. We are convinced that bishop Vincent’s case can and should be used for further learning so as to the same injustice in similar cases of political refugees under Australian protection will not repeat anymore.

Bishop Vincent Answering Mr Petko Dimitrov’s Questions. Part 1

As soon as the media wrote about the expiration of the sentence term assigned to you by the court, despite the fact that you were initially taken under protection as a refugee from totalitarian Russia and are a clergyman, I suspected something was wrong. First of all, I’m glad it’s over!

Please tell us how you survived this sentence. As I understand, you served part of the term of imprisonment assigned to you in custody– as many as 174 days – as well as 20 months directly in prison, after which the sentence was to be suspended … Right? What did you do in prison and outside, did the punishment affect your health, how did you support yourself?

You are right. My sentence was four years and three months fully suspended after one year and nine months of imprisonment. I was serving my imprisonment term in the main area (not in protection) of high security prison. As a prisoner, I was not isolated from the other inmates and worked as a librarian and tutor in Mathematics and English. I experienced no problems with the other prisoners and staff. My physical health remained well, and depression, which I suffered from before imprisonment, disappeared, as I had to mobilise myself physically and spiritually. Prayers, spiritual meditation and self-scrutiny, my dedication to work and regular walking helped me to successfully overcome all the challenges of imprisonment.

Can you please clarify to our audience why and when Russians started a disinformation campaign against you?

 As an Orthodox bishop, in 1990, I had played one of the main roles in the resurrection of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, participating in the consecration of the first independent Ukrainian bishops. Some time after that, I was admitted into the Roman Catholic Church by Archbishop Volodimir Sternuk, patriarchal locum tenens of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and became a Catholic bishop. With the blessing of the Archbishop based on the precedent when the Holy Father granted such a power to the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, I resurrected the Russian Orthodox Catholic Church on the territory of Russia. I had also initiated a movement for establishing diplomatic relations between Russia and the Holy See, gathering thousands of signatures for a petition to Russian parliament. These religious and political activities were met with an intense hostility from the Russian Orthodox Church and state authorities. I became a subject for their calculated slander, provocations, falsifications and even an assassination plot. As a result of those hostilities, in 1992, I found myself having no choice but to leave Russia. In 1993, Australia had granted me its protection. In 1996, I had become Australian citizen. I do not hold Russian or any other citizenship. All these years, I have been staying away from any participation in any political and religious activities related to Russia. However, I have never been forgotten by Russian religious and political authorities. The more powerful the Russian Orthodox Church was becoming and the more Russian authorities and personally Vladimir Putin were using orthodox ideology for their nationalistic aggression internally and externally, the more I was subjected to their deliberate lies and slander in mass media and the letters to international religious leaders. Slandering me has mostly been designed to serve their attempts to defame the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church as canonically compromised in the line of apostolic succession and prevent its recognition by the Patriarch of Constantinople and the other churches. Also, they have been using any means available to them for my persecution as a person.

To be honest, this is the first time I’m talking to a psychiatrist, and even an ex-KGB officer! A unique experience for me! Can you tell us due to what circumstances you enrolled in that system?

Just before completion of high school, I was approached by a high-ranking KGB officer, who offered me two options of becoming political intelligence officer: (1) while studying in the Moscow Institute of International Relations and obtaining a cover of a diplomat; or (2) while undertaking a special medical training and obtaining a cover of a psychiatrist for working in some international medical organisations such as the World Health Organisation, for example. I was young and did not want to ruin my life from its beginning by refusal. I preferred to choose the second option. I guess that I was chosen by the KGB because my father and some other relatives occupied high governmental positions and belonged to the so called ‘nomenklatura’, making me a person of their circle. Also, I was a top student, sportsman and had certain interest and ability to study foreign languages.

Did you ever really work for the most horrible Soviet secret service, or was everything limited to getting a medical education?

After completion of special and medical training, I was working as an instructor in the same special school until my departure to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1981.

Most importantly, how did you manage to get out of that misanthropic system (after education or work)?.. Isn’t this the reason for your persecution here, as for some reason I immediately assumed when I saw the note about the completion of your suspended sentence?

It was very difficult and even dangerous. However, as a result of my professional study of the human psyche and a search for personal meaning of life, I found God and turned towards religion. My supervisors discovered this and decided that I became professionally compromised. I was unable to continue working as required. After a certain struggle, they allowed me to start serving in the Church as I wanted. They hoped to use me as a clergyman for their purposes.

I’m sorry, but you know what happened to Skripal and other former employees of the Russian special services who emigrated from Russia… 
Do you think Putin’s henchmen don’t have a goal to kill you? Or are they simply unable to reach you in Australia, except through defamation and legal harassment?

I was very nearly killed in 1986, when the KGB unreasonably suspected me in espionage and accused me in bringing to the USA embassy samples of soil and water from a military sensitive area of the USSR. Luckily, they found that they were wrong. Starting from the 1990s, for the reasons I already mentioned, my life was in constant jeopardy. When I departed Russia in 1992 and stopped being engaged in Russian religious and political affairs, the risk to be killed considerably decreased. It became more practical for the Russian special services to discredit rather than to kill me, although, the risk to be killed is present and is now increased due to current situation with Ukraine and inner atmosphere of Russian society, where authorities maniacally looking for ‘traitors’, ‘foreign agents’, and so forth. Yet, my case is somewhat different from the cases of the “former employees of the Russian special services” you mentioned. Killing a clergyman can create a martyr and bring consequences quite the opposite to those, which such a murder would aim to achieve.

Bishop Vincent Answering Mr Petko Dimitrov’s Questions. Part 1

Please tell us what charges were brought against you by the Australian justice system. Did you admit them? How did the trial go? Do you think the verdict is fair?

Entirely on the basis of disinformation produced by Russian officials, I was accused in using forged medical credentials and charged with fraud. I pleaded “not guilty” and always insisted on my innocence. I can see no sense to discuss any particulars of judicial proceedings because I believe that all the Queensland State authorities involved, such as the Police, Director of Public Prosecutions, Attorney-General and Courts acted illegitimately outside their jurisdiction and competence. Contradictory to my political refugee status and granted protection (from Russia) in Australia, Russian disinformation was treated by the Queensland authorities as a trusted and legally acceptable evidence. It was unlikely legitimate given Australian international obligations regarding refugee protection and constitutional determination of the federal and state jurisdictions. No state in Australia has any jurisdiction in foreign, refugee and immigration matters. They are entirely under the jurisdiction of the federal authorities. Queensland authorities should have referred Russian information of concern to the federal authorities. Thus, my matter is rather constitutional and administrative than judicial.

What evidence was provided by the prosecution?

The only evidence produced by Russian officials, and no any other evidence from any Russian private persons at all.

In 2018, the media, according to your son (Andreas Berg), wrote about your intention to file documents for appeal. Have you applied for it?

Yes.

What is its fate?

Appeal before the Queensland Court of Appeal was unsuccessful, because I was represented (rather, misrepresented) by questionably qualified barrister provided by Legal Aid Queensland.

How did your son endure your conviction and imprisonment?

His position is the same as mine. He views my conviction and imprisonment as illegitimate and as a miscarriage of justice. I would not wish for a better understanding and support than I have had and continue to have, from my son.

The media also wrote that you allegedly receive a pension for mental disability? Is it true? If so, when did you start receiving it?

I am not receiving a disability pension, now. I am a 70-year-old Age Pensioner since 2017. Some years ago, I used to receive a disability pension due to temporarily suffering from depression.

Did these problems appear against the background of the accusations and the trial, or did you suffer from them before?

They developed some time before the events you mentioned due to the accumulation of life traumas and stresses and increased at the time of criminal prosecution and trial. They completely disappeared during my imprisonment. Currently, I am not suffering from any mental health conditions and not undertaking any psychiatric treatment.

How did the court assess these circumstances?

Queensland Mental Health Court employed some highly qualified and prominent specialists in forensic psychiatry. On their advice, the court decided that I experienced major depressive episode which did not affect my sanity, insight and judgement.

Can the Russians have any other motives for discrediting and isolating you?

I am not aware about any other motives other than the ones I have previously emphasised, and those reasons are very serious.

Given the circumstances you described, it is quite logical that the Australian authorities granted you refugee status. But it’s quite strange when justice suddenly turns against someone it has pledged to protect…

Please tell us how you got to Australia, why you chose this country, were there any difficulties with paperwork?

Injustice happened because of Russian infamous skills for disinformation and Australian inexperience and unpreparedness to withstand it, which resulted in systemic administrative failure. My guess is that in countries like the USA or UK such a Russian disinformation would not have succeeded. Yet, I have chosen Australia as my asylum country, because it is far from Russia and NATO countries, which are heavily infiltrated with Russian spies. Applying for a political refugee status and Australian protection required certain efforts, but a considerable amount of internationally available information about me, I guess, made my case reasonably straightforward for Australian authorities.

If I understand correctly, a couple of years before moving to Australia, you visited the USA… Please tell us a little about your life during that period.

I was invited to visit the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad by its synod and stayed in the USA from December 1989 till March 1990. Just prior to my visit, the KGB had sent there its agent known as bishop Łazarz (Żurbienko), who managed to organise some disinformation and provocations in order to discredit me. It complicated my visit. Also, I found the nationalistic atmosphere dominating there, as spiritually unacceptable.

When arguing the inadmissibility of evidence from Russia, did you appeal to the refugee status as confirmation by the Australian state authorities of your persecution in Russia (which was the basis for granting asylum)?

The Queensland State authorities involved in my matter were very well aware about my political refugee status under Australian protection (from Russia) but chose not to refer the Russian information of concern to the competent federal authorities, but to illegitimately act outside their jurisdiction and competence.

What other arguments and evidence refuting the position of the prosecution were given by you and your lawyers? How did the court react to them?

I have certain reasons to believe that my defence team, funded by Legal Aid Queensland, was not always professionally efficient and acting in my interests. Queensland Court of Appeal in its reasoning repeatedly pointed to their failings, specifically, to actions they should have taken, but did not. Once, even the trial judge had to intervene in my defence, because my lawyers failed to make an obvious “no case to answer” submission for some of the charges. I am confident that, if I were represented by good lawyers I would be acquitted. Yet, I consider discussing legal particulars having not much sense because of the illegitimate character of all the proceedings performed by Queensland authorities outside their jurisdiction and competence.

How would you explain such a reaction of the court? Was it political pressure, insufficient expertise?

It was total lack of expertise and pressure of a publicly significant criminal matter ‘hanging’ for far too long in the Queensland justice system.

At the same time, you also have a church rank!.. Please tell our audience which church you belong to and where you served.

Since 1990, when I was admitted into the Roman Catholic Church by Archbishop Volodimir Sternuk, patriarchal locum tenens of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and became a Catholic bishop, I remain as such but not publicly active lately. Now, I hear the call to abandon my seclusion and to fulfil my duties. I believe that the Holy Father will bless me and entrust me a certain spiritual task.

Please wish something to our audience. Maybe at this time of trials for Ukraine, would you like to say something to Ukrainians living in Australia and other countries? Any spiritual advice, words of support?

We are often tempted to find a material solution for the problems we experience because of not seeing or ignoring their spiritual nature. Thus, our achievements are contradictory even in cases of seeming success. I wish all of us spiritual vision and wisdom.