Media: Czechia reportedly wants to impose sanctions on Russian Orthodox Church head

Ilarion, head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Czechia, may be added to the national sanctions list, and the likely future prime minister, Andrej Babiš (ANO), has said he would agree with such a move.

Metropolitan Ilarion is currently serving in Karlovy Vary. Recently, media outlets published reports about his alleged links with Russian secret services.

In light of this, the outgoing government of Petr Fiala is considering imposing sanctions on the clergyman, Deník N sources said.

Fiala replied that all Czech state authorities closely monitored hostile actions by foreign agents and always acted in accordance with Czech law. He said that representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church were no exception, but that he would not and could not comment on specific cases.

For his part, Minister for European Affairs Martin Dvořák said that a person like Ilarion should be under sanctions.

Interior Minister Vít Rakušan did not rule out Ilarion's inclusion on the list. He noted that he did not wish to speak publicly about adding anyone to the sanctions list, explaining that such information was always announced only after government approval so that all measures arising from the inclusion could be implemented beforehand.

The likely future prime minister, Andrej Babiš (ANO), agreed that the Russian clergyman should be added to the sanctions list. Babiš said in a written response to Deník N that they would agree with it but added that the current government was still in power and should be asked about it.

The Czech authorities had already considered adding Metropolitan Ilarion to the sanctions list last year but eventually abandoned the idea.

At the moment, Ilarion holds a Hungarian passport, meaning he is officially a citizen of the European Union and cannot be banned from staying in EU territory.

Metropolitan Ilarion was transferred to Czechia from Budapest at the end of last year, and one of the first steps taken by the Russian Orthodox Church under his leadership was to transfer its property to the Hungarian diocese – apparently out of concern that the Czech authorities might freeze its assets.

The Russian Orthodox Church in Czechia is directly subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate and is connected to the Russian regime. This also applies to Metropolitan Ilarion.

On 30 September, the Czech government decided to ban entry to Russian diplomats and holders of service passports who do not have national accreditation from Prague.