Churches in Australia National Council of Churches in the Philippines Caribbean – Caribbean Conference of Churches Europe – Conference of European Churches, Geneva, Switzerland; Council of Christian Churches of an African Approach in Europe Latin America – Latin American Council of Churches Middle East – Middle East Council of Churches North America Canadian Council of Churches National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA Pacific – Pacific Conference of Churches, Suva, Fiji Criticism Alleged neglect of suffering church in Eastern Europe Some historians, the U.S. State Department and former KGB officers themselves have alleged and provided corroborating evidence that the KGB's influence directly, or through lobbying by means of a front organization, the Christian Peace Conference, resulted in the WCC's failure to recognize or act on calls for help from persecuted East European Christians at the 1983 Vancouver General Assembly. Claims of infiltration and influence by the KGB It is claimed the KGB has infiltrated and influenced past WCC councils and policy. In 1992, Father Gleb Yakunin, a vice Chairman of a Russian parliamentary commission that investigated the activities of the KGB, citing verbatim KGB reports, claimed that its Fifth Directorate was actively involved in influencing WCC policy from 1967 to 1989. For example, in the 1983 WCC General Assembly in Vancouver, one cited document described the presence and activities of 47 KGB agents to secure the election of an "acceptable" candidate as General Secretary. The Mitrokhin Archive reveals more about the depth of the penetration and influence wielded by the KGB over the WCC. Metropolitan Nikidim was a KGB agent, codenamed ADAMANT, who served as one of six WCC Presidents from 1975 until his death. His earlier intervention had resulted in the WCC making no comment on the invasion of Czechoslovakia. As a result of his influence and that of other agents, it is claimed the USSR was rarely publicly criticised. In 1989, copies of the KGB documents claim "the WCC executive and central committee adopted public statements (eight) and messages (three)" which corresponded to its own political direction. Appeals from suffering dissidents both from within the Russian Orthodox Church and Protestants were ignored in 1983. Metropolitan Aleksi Ridiger of Tallinn and Estonia was repeatedly alleged to be a KGB agent codenamed DROZDOV, who in 1988 was awarded an honorary citation for services to the KGB by its chairman. Despite official disavowals, The Guardian described the evidence