In the Czech Republic, the influential Russian Archbishop Hilarion was detained on suspicion of drug trafficking. Moscow is talking about a staged attack on the Orthodox faith.
Archbishop Ilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church was arrested in the Czech Republic over the weekend. According to the police, he is suspected of transporting narcotics. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Monday that it will summon the Czech ambassador to protest against the detention of the emeritus metropolitan. TASR informs about it.
The Czech portal Novinky.cz reported that Ilarion was detained on Sunday in the city of Unhošť in the Central Bohemian Region after leaving the Karlovy Vary Orthodox Church of Saints Peter and Paul. In the trunk of his vehicle, the police reportedly found four bags of white cloth.
The police intervened on the initiative
The spokeswoman of the Czech National Anti-Drug Central, Lucia Šmoldasová, confirmed that based on an anonymous tip, which drew attention to the transport of narcotic and psychotropic substances, the police intervened against the vehicle in the Central Bohemia region.
Ilarion denies the suspicion of drug possession and calls the whole thing a provocation, according to Noviniek, as follows from a post on his channel on the Telegram platform.
Moscow denies the accusations
Moscow considers this incident a “deliberate and staged accusation, the aim of which is to damage the reputation of the Metropolitan himself and, in principle, of the Orthodox faith, which has recently become hostile in the Czech Republic”, said the spokeswoman of the Department of Russian Diplomacy, Marija Zakharovová.
Hilarion, whose secular name is Grigory Alfeyev, served for 13 years as the head of the department of external church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. In 2022, shortly after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he was unexpectedly entrusted with the leadership of the relatively insignificant Budapest eparchy. Two years later, he was relieved of this position after a younger colleague accused him of sexual harassment. Ilarion denies her claims. He currently serves as a clergyman in Karlovy Vary.
