Updated: 19.09.2025
The Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ) is an organization affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate. It was established in 2015 with the primary goal of promoting Kremlin propaganda amid Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Over time, the UOJ has expanded its presence to other European countries.
Since 2024, the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ) has been banned in Ukraine due to its affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate.
Although the UOJ’s website and Facebook pages have been active in Georgia since 2020, the organization officially announced the launch of its operations in Georgia on September 4, 2025.
A sponsored post on Facebook states that the organization’s goal is to “strengthen the Orthodox religion in Georgia,” and they are actively working toward this aim.
The information also states that on November 21, 2024, the UOJ registered a new legal entity in Europe and opened branches in Mount Athos, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Serbia, the USA, Albania, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Plans are underway to establish additional branches in various countries in the future.
The UOJ often spreads disinformation and manipulative content, including about the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and identity issues, anti-Western sentiment in Moldova, as well as gender identity in America, and other topics.
Since 2020, the platform has been using the Facebook page “Union of Orthodox Journalists” and the website spzh.news.ge to share articles in Georgian published on the organization’s site. These were later migrated to a European domain: https://spzh.eu/.
The website spzh.news.ge was registered in 2018, with its IP address located in Texas. However, it is no longer functional at this stage.
In September 2025, a new Facebook page for the organization was created, and materials are now being distributed through the website mzk.ge, which was registered in 2010. The mzk.ge website, like spzh.eu, was also registered in 2010 and has an IP address located in California, suggesting that both sites may be hosted on the same server.
