While over a decade separates these two decisions, they are both part of a strategy by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin to extend Russia’s soft power influence, circumvent Western sanctions, and possibly create bases for Russian intelligence operations by reclaiming the ecclesiastical property of the Russian Empire.

Both Russian churches in Nice were built in the last decades of the Russian Empire, when the city was a playground of Russia’s aristocracy. At the time of their construction, the churches belonged, like all foreign Russian church property, to the tsar. But following the Bolshevik Revolution, the new Soviet government renounced both the foreign debts and assets of the Russian Empire. This left Russia’s vast church holdings abroad in a legal limbo. In places where these properties were not seized by local authorities, Russian émigré communities—frequently made up of White Russian refugees and anti-Bolsheviks—took control though legally murky arrangements.

… While today’s Russian Federation declared itself the successor of the Soviet Union, it has never formally done so with respect to the Russian Empire. Nonetheless, in the early 2000s, Russia, invoking imperial-era lease agreements, sued in French courts to reclaim the two Nice churches. After years of legal back-and forth, Moscow eventually prevailed.

These verdicts have had consequences far beyond property ownership. They also impact geopolitics at a moment when Russia is growing more aggressive in Europe.