Professor Klaus Nebel and Alexander Krylov represented a highly interesting organisation: the West-Ost-Institut, located in Berlin (Zimmerstraße 79-80, 10117 Berlin). Klaus Nebel (b. 1945) was the institute's chairman of the board, and Alexander Krylov was its director. The other three board members included Alexei Gromyko, the grandson of the Soviet foreign minister, head of the European programmes of the Russkiy Mir, director of the Institute of Europe at the Russian Academy of Sciences, and holder of numerous other titles. The other two board members were Germans: Manfred Bissinger and Professor Dr. Reinhard Pöllath.
Perhaps it was Alexei Gromyko who was the key figure of the West-Ost Institute.
Journalist Manfred Bissinger (b. 1940), former head of the German PEN Centre and editor-in-chief of many magazines, belonged to the inner circle of advisers to German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Reinhard Pöhlath (b. 1948) is a lawyer and manager, chairman of the supervisory boards of Maxingvest AG (formerly Tchibo Holding AG) and Beiersdorf AG, and professor at the Institute of Tax Law at the Westphalian University of Münster.
As stated on the institute's director's website, ‘The Berlin West-Ost Institute (Institute for International Management and Image Research) is an educational, research, and consulting institution. The Institute conducts fundamental and applied research, hosts scientific and practical conferences, forums, and congresses, develops advanced training programmes, and promotes economic and political cooperation.’ The West-Ost Institute was founded in 2003.
The institute owns the West-Ost-Verlag publishing house (managed by Dr. Vladimir Grinev, editor-in-chief Aleksandr Krylov) and publishes the magazine West-Ost-Report. Since 2010, West-Ost-Development-UG has also been operating, managed by Vladimir Evgenievich Grinev. Vladimir Grinev is apparently the son of Yevgeny Mikhailovich Grinev, president of the All-Russian public organisation Russia Development Fund, Doctor of Economics, and member of the Scientific and Expert Council on Anti-Crisis Policy of the Analytical Department of the State Duma Staff. The Russia Development Fund is a murky, ostensibly public organisation, but close to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, which, among other things, develops draft federal laws. Yevgeny Grinev also holds the title of president of the Academy of Systems Research. Vladimir Grinev holds the title of vice president of the International Academy of Systems Analysis and Research. Apparently, these are the same Academy. References to it, more than scant, can be found on the website of the Russia Development Fund. Vladimir Grinev (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vladimir Grinev) also heads the Berlin branch of the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (Moscow). In reality, no branch exists; there is only Grinev himself, who, moreover, uses the title of professor without any justification.
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According to his official biography, the institute's director, Alexander Krylov (b. 1969), graduated from the Chelyabinsk State Pedagogical University in 1993 (History and Socioeconomic Disciplines), studied psychology at the Moscow Humanitarian University, and defended his dissertation at Moscow State University in 1999 on ‘The Problem of Human Nature in the Russian Psychoanalytic Tradition.’ In 2000, Krylov received German citizenship and moved to Germany in 2001, continuing to teach as a professor at the National Institute of Business in Moscow (although his name is not listed among the NIB faculty).
From 2008 to 2010, Krylov was a professor at the short-lived private University of Management and Communication in Potsdam. Krylov is also a member of the German-Russian Forum and co-chairman of the Bremen School of Economics e.V. (BSoE).
This non-governmental organisation was founded in 2003 within the Institute for World Economy and International Management at the University of Bremen. The BSoE is chaired by Professor Dr. Axel Sell (retired 2008), and financial matters are handled by economist Tobias Schauf. Schauf also runs the consulting firm OstKontor, which works primarily with Mongolia. Sell and Schauf have participated in conferences organised by the West-Ost-Institut, such as the 2010 conference in Berlin on ‘Modernisierung und Humanisierung: Chancen für West- und Osteuropa.’
The information on the Bremen School of Economics website gives the impression that it is a fictitious organisation created solely to assist the West-Ost-Institut.
The autonomous non-profit organisation of higher education ‘National Institute of Business’ (NIB) was established in 1995. Founders: ‘Moscow Humanitarian University and a group of individuals.’
Moscow University for the Humanities (MosGU) is the legal successor to the Higher Komsomol School (HKS) of the Komsomol Central Committee (formerly the Central Komsomol School). During Soviet times, the HKS enrolled more foreigners than Soviet citizens, clearly indicating its KGB jurisdiction. There is no doubt that the department's ties to the secret services continued into the post-Soviet era. This is evident from the track records of Igor Ilyinsky, president of HKS (also rector of MosGU), and Sergei Plaksiy, rector of HKS (also vice rector of MosGU). Plaksiy is also listed as an expert at the West-Ost Institute.
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According to the West-Ost-Institute's website, it offers services in developing German-Russian business relations, securing scholarships at German universities for Russian students, and publishing Russian scientific literature through its own publishing house. The institute's funding sources are unclear, but it's safe to assume that it's a purely Russian organisation, addressing Moscow's problems and having no direct connection to science. The topic of Krylov's paper at the Berlin symposium also appears more than a little dubious from an academic perspective: ‘Education and Science as Components of National and Regional Image.’
The German Wikipedia adds details to Krylov's biography that are missing from the Russian Wikipedia. In 2013, the National Institute of Business awarded Krylov the title of Honorary Professor – ‘Prof. h.s.’ In 2015, Krylov received the title of Honorary Professor of the Higher School of Humanities and Social Sciences (Hochschule für Human- und Sozialwissenschaften in Moskau).
It's possible this refers to the Moscow University for the Humanities. Furthermore, in May 2015, Krylov was ordained a deacon in Kaarst, and in June 2016, he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in Cologne Cathedral by Cardinal Wölke, Archbishop of Cologne. This information is not found in any Russian biographies of Krylov.
The German-language Facebook page ‘Alexander Krylov’ states that he has been studying theology at the Philosophical-Theological School in St. Augustin (Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Augustin) since 2011.
From 2002 to 2016, the Institute held a series of conferences in Moscow, Bremen, and Berlin under the general title "Discourse: West-East": "Along with scientific analysis of current issues, the conferences in the "Discourse: West-East" series offer participants the opportunity to establish business contacts, exchange opinions, and obtain objective and competent information.
Partners and co-organisers of previous conferences included the National Institute of Business, the Nikolo M group of companies, the Bremen School of Economics, the Institute of World Economy and International Management at the University of Bremen, the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce, the Eastern Committee of the German Economy, and others. The topics of previous conferences mostly seem like imitations of academic topics. The most recent conference was held in October 2016 in Moscow, at the Moscow University for the Humanities. Its theme was ‘Christian Values in the Context of a Global Challenge.’ The conference coincided with the arrival in Moscow of a large delegation of Catholic priests and seminarians from the Cologne Archdiocese, organised by Krylov. As Krylov wrote in his conference report, ‘The Rector of the Redemptoris Mater International Theological Seminary in Cologne, S. Pane, outlined current value debates in contemporary Europe in his address, while the Italian journalist and editor of Radio Vatican, M. Galgano, shared analytical information on the topic of 'The Influence of Politics and the Media on the Values of Modern Society.'’ During the delegation's stay in Moscow, Krylov solemnly conducted his first service as a priest and delivered a sermon in which he reminded the believers that they must rely on God in everything. The delegation was received by Metropolitan Hilarion, who spoke of the flourishing Orthodox Church in Russia, three churches being consecrated daily, monasteries filled with young people desiring to become monks, 600 churches in the capital alone, and the flourishing Orthodox Church in Russia after years of oppression. Apparently, this conference was organised in order to establish contacts with the highest ranks of the Catholic Church in Germany and carry out an operation to fool them.
Since 2016, Krylov, judging by his Russian Facebook page, stopped working at the West-Ost-Institute and moved to Cologne, apparently to devote himself to service.
Krylov's exotic biography is not as unprecedented as it might seem. The Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union was once recreated during the war as a special operation by the NKVD, with state security officers acting as church leadership.
In Krylov's case, we are apparently faced with a successful attempt by Russian intelligence services to infiltrate the Catholic Church in the West.
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