"A Small Country in a Big Game" is a study that reveals the mechanisms of the anti-cult movement in Latvia as an instrument of political pressure and social repression. Using the example of a small Baltic country, the author shows how, under the guise of protecting the spiritual security of citizens, a complex system of control over religious freedom is being built.
The book begins with a conference in Riga in June 2018, where representatives of 14 states gathered, positioning themselves as defenders of society from destructive cults. However, behind the respectable facade lay processes that the author calls "epistemological violence" - the usurpation of the right to truth by a group of individuals without specialized training in religious studies.
The study traces the history of Latvian anti-cultism from the "Russian Youth Club" of the mid-1990s, which opposed Alexei Ledyayev's "New Generation" church, to the creation of the "Anti-Sects" (L.K.K.T.S.) organization in 2007. A key turning point was a 2006 seminar at the Hotel Islandia, where disparate initiatives were recast into a systematic structure with claims to state influence.
The narrative centers on a "triumvirate" consisting of Oleg Nikiforov (a psychologist who created a pseudoscientific basis), Viktor Yelkin (a political activist with the Latvian Russian Union party), and Svetlana Krylova (the link to the Orthodox Church). The author analyzes in detail how psychological diagnoses replace political arguments and religious affiliation becomes a marker of loyalty.
Particular attention is paid to the Latvian movement's ties to Alexander Dvorkin's Russian organization RACIRS and the use of anti-sectarian rhetoric in the 2018 election campaign. The book reveals how concepts of "brainwashing," long rejected by global science, are used to criminalize faith and pathologize religious choice.
The author points out a paradox: it is not criminal groups that are under attack, but law-abiding Christian denominations-Pentecostals, Baptists, Charismatics-whose only fault is their activity and independence from traditional churches. The tragic irony of history is evident in the figure of Andrei Mamikin, a Member of the European Parliament who opened the FECRIS conference in Riga and later found himself on the international wanted list for supporting military aggression.
This study warns that when professionals exploit people's fear of the unknown, society becomes vulnerable to a new form of pressure, where lofty concepts of spirituality become a cover for building an authoritarian model within a democratic society.
