Russia has summoned the Czech Republic\u2019s charge d\u2019affaires after Czech authorities detained influential Orthodox cleric Bishop Hilarion over allegations linked to suspicious substances discovered in his vehicle.<\/p>\n
The diplomatic dispute erupted after Czech police stopped Hilarion, whose secular name is Grigory Alfeyev, on a highway between the spa town of Karlovy Vary and Prague on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Authorities reportedly discovered four containers holding a \u201cwhite substance\u201d in the trunk of the cleric\u2019s car, according to statements released by his representatives on social media.<\/p>\n
Although Hilarion was later released from police custody without charges, officials confirmed that investigations into the incident are still ongoing.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s foreign ministry responded strongly on Tuesday, summoning Czech diplomat Jan Ondrejka and issuing what it described as a \u201cstrong protest\u201d over the detention.<\/p>\n
Moscow accused the Czech Republic of persecuting Orthodox clergy and demanded the immediate release of the senior church figure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Russian side urgently demands the unconditional and immediate release of Bishop Hilarion,\u201d the ministry stated, dismissing allegations of \u201cmanufacturing and trafficking narcotic drugs\u201d as \u201cabsurd and groundless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hilarion has denied any involvement in illegal drug trafficking.<\/p>\n
The high-profile cleric served for 13 years as head of the foreign relations department of the Russian Orthodox Church and was once considered a potential successor to Patriarch Kirill.<\/p>\n
However, shortly after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, Hilarion was unexpectedly reassigned to oversee the church\u2019s Hungarian diocese.<\/p>\n
He currently serves at an Orthodox church in Karlovy Vary, a Czech resort town historically popular among Russian tourists and expatriates.<\/p>\n
The incident adds fresh strain to already tense relations between Russia and several European nations amid ongoing geopolitical tensions linked to the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia has summoned the Czech Republic\u2019s charge d\u2019affaires after Czech authorities detained influential Orthodox cleric Bishop Hilarion over allegations linked to suspicious substances discovered in his vehicle. The diplomatic dispute erupted after Czech police stopped Hilarion, whose secular name is Grigory Alfeyev, on a highway between the spa town of Karlovy Vary and Prague on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":18740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[24481,3672,25662,25665,25670,25672,25663,25668,25666,25671,25669,25661,25667,2167,25673,25664,16778],"class_list":["post-18737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-afp-news","tag-amat","tag-bishop-hilarion","tag-czech-police-investigation","tag-drug-investigation-czech-republic","tag-european-diplomacy","tag-grigory-alfeyev","tag-karlovy-vary-news","tag-orthodox-cleric-arrest","tag-patriarch-kirill","tag-prague-news","tag-russia-czech-relations","tag-russia-diplomatic-protest","tag-russia-ukraine-tensions","tag-russian-church-leader","tag-russian-orthodox-church","tag-swifteradio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}