The company "Orthodox Parishes" posed as a virtual operator of "Beeline"

The Orthodox Parishes company created the Orthodox operator Blagovest, whose tariffs included calls, Internet and SMS mailings with quotes from Patriarch Kirill. She also pretended to be a subsidiary of Beeline, but the mobile operator denies any connection with her. this . reported Vedomosti

“Orthodox parishes” provided communication services for parishes and monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Moscow, Vladimir, Kaluga and Tver regions. The company’s website indicates that the development of the virtual operator was carried out by the service of the Moscow Patriarchate and VimpelCom, the latter owned by Beeline.

The company connects monasteries to cellular communications at the request of the abbot, although it does not have the necessary license. To do this, the head of the parish must “list the clergy and parishioners who will be connected to this tariff and attach photocopies of their passports.” Tariffs include mobile Internet and cellular communications, as well as SMS mailings with quotes from the statements of Patriarch Kirill.

Beeline representative Anna Aibasheva said that Blagovest has nothing to do with the company. She explained that Orthodox Parishes is a corporate client, not a virtual operator.

We have already contacted our client with a request to correct the information on the website and from the support service.

Anna Aibasheva, representative of Beeline

However, Aibasheva did not disclose the details of the cooperation, saying that VimpelCom provided Orthodox parishes with a special number and several tariffs.

As journalist Oleg Salmanov noted , the website of the Orthodox operator was remade from a template for a taxi service.

The page “Parishes and monasteries” is called “corporate clients”, and ordering a SIM card takes place on the “taxi order” page.

On the “trezvyy-voditel” page, which talks about providing unlimited Internet, you can find out how much 3, 10 or 15 GB of unlimited (!) Internet will cost you.

Oleg Salmanov, journalist

Vedomosti noted that the owner and general director of Orthodox Parishes is Alexey Orlov, who also owns the Global Paging Systems company and a stake in MTK-Mobil. In both cases, the companies are promoting VimpelCom tariffs.