Tallinn wants to ban the activities of the Russian church in the country.
Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets wants to invite the Riigikogu to recognize Moscow Patriarchate a terrorist organization in order to ban its activities in the country.
Postimees reports this, citing the Minister of Internal Affairs.
The reason for this decision by the Ministry of Internal Affairs was a statement by a representative of the Estonian Orthodox Church MP. According to him, the local church is directly subordinate to the Moscow Patriarch and cannot be responsible for statements made in Moscow in support of Russia’s war in Ukraine. With this statement, the EOC MP actually rejected the minister’s demand to leave the subordination of the Russian Patriarch Kirill.
In turn, Lauri Läänemets emphasized: based on the department’s expertise and the assessment of the Security Police, he has no choice but to take measures to sever ties between the SOC MP and the Moscow Patriarch.
“Given the current context, I, as the Minister of the Interior, have no choice but to propose to the Riigikogu that the Moscow Patriarchate be declared terrorist, supporting terrorism in its activities. The Minister of the Interior will be able to go to court and propose stop the activities of this church organization.” “This will not affect parishioners, this does not mean that churches will be closed, but it does mean that ties with Moscow will be severed,” Läänemets said.
He also emphasized that the Moscow Patriarchate is subordinate to the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who, in fact, leads terrorist activities in the world.
As reported, at the end of March, Patriarch Kirill issued an “order” by which The Moscow Patriarchate officially declared the war in Ukraine “sacred”. After its end “the entire territory of modern Ukraine should enter the zone of exclusive influence of Russia.”
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