Czech Police Detain Russian Bishop Over Suspicious White Powder
Heba Habib
Czech police have detained a Russian Orthodox bishop after finding four boxes of suspicious white powder in his car. Moscow has condemned the arrest as a provocation. The bishop denies any involvement with drugs.
Czech police have detained a Russian clergyman after finding four boxes containing a suspicious white powder in his car. According to a statement from his defense team on Telegram on Monday, Orthodox Bishop Hilarion was taken into custody in the western town of Karlovy Vary.
Bishop Hilarion, 60, whose secular name is Grigory Alfeyev, leads the Russian Orthodox Church community in the town, which has a large Russian expatriate population. The arrest has fueled accusations from Moscow that the Czech government provoked the incident, even though Prague has scaled back its support for Ukraine since taking office six months ago.
The clergyman denies any involvement with drug possession. 'I have never had any connection with the illegal drug trade,' he declared. Czech police only confirmed that a man was arrested Sunday evening on a highway between Karlovy Vary and Prague, adding that interrogations are ongoing and no charges have been filed, without disclosing the detainee's identity.
The Czech Drug Prevention Center said it acted on an anonymous tip about the transport of narcotics and psychotropic substances. Hilarion's lawyer stated that police gave no clear reason for stopping the vehicle, and two patrol cars appeared to have been waiting on the road. He added that the bishop was not allowed to witness the search, and the defense team has requested an independent forensic examination of the substance, along with fingerprint and DNA testing.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the incident a 'deliberate provocation' aimed at discrediting Hilarion and demanded his immediate release. 'The head of the Czech diplomatic mission in Moscow will soon be summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, where a strong protest will be made against this unacceptable arbitrariness by Czech authorities,' she said.
Russian media reported that the arrest followed months of anonymous threats against Hilarion, including physical violence warnings demanding he leave his post in Karlovy Vary. Hilarion was once considered the right-hand man of Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and a staunch supporter of President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.
However, the clergyman is believed to have fallen out of favor with the Moscow spiritual elite and was sent abroad in 2022, shortly after Russia launched its military campaign. His appointment to the Czech Republic came after a former assistant filed a complaint accusing him of sexual misconduct, allegations Hilarion denied, claiming the individual attempted to extort €384,000 from him. Unlike many senior Russian clerics who openly support the war in Ukraine, Hilarion has never publicly commented on the conflict.
Also on Monday, the Czech government, a coalition of populist and far-right parties that took office in December, announced it had approved a legislative amendment tightening residency rules and financial support for Ukrainian refugees. The government said it was responding to abuse of aid and perceptions that refugees enjoy some advantages over locals.
