A Kremlin goal? Exiled Church determine Hilarion hits again at claims of spying

[ad_1] Nick Thorpe Budapest correspondent

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/ba2f/live/27a55af0-bc02-11f0-90b3-259a136a1615.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/ba2f/live/27a55af0-bc02-11f0-90b3-259a136a1615.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/ba2f/live/27a55af0-bc02-11f0-90b3-259a136a1615.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/ba2f/live/27a55af0-bc02-11f0-90b3-259a136a1615.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/ba2f/live/27a55af0-bc02-11f0-90b3-259a136a1615.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/ba2f/live/27a55af0-bc02-11f0-90b3-259a136a1615.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/ba2f/live/27a55af0-bc02-11f0-90b3-259a136a1615.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/ba2f/live/27a55af0-bc02-11f0-90b3-259a136a1615.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="Nick Thorpe/BBC Metropolitan Hilarion stands in front of a bookcase in Budapest" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Nick Thorpe/BBC No motive for Metropolitan Hilarion's exile from Russia was given, however many observers blame his views on the battle in Ukraine

"I've by no means labored for any intelligence [agency], be it Russian or every other. I've by no means had any duties or duties or requests on their half," says the previous head of overseas relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion.

Hilarion has damaged his silence after a sequence of allegations levelled towards him by a former aide.

"Working for the Church isn't suitable with working for intelligence. These are two very completely different allegiances," he advised the BBC.

Metropolitan Hilarion was for a few years a high-flyer within the Church and seen as seemingly successor to Patriarch Kirill. He fell from grace in a short time after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and was despatched into exile in Hungary.

No motive was ever given however shut observers of the Orthodox Church had been in little doubt. Patriarch Kirill warmly embraced Vladimir Putin's battle, however Hilarion neither blessed nor opposed it.

In Putin's Russia, the place criticism of the battle is a legal offence, such a stance from a prime clergyman was sufficient to lose Hilarion his job.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/5ae6/live/48a3c9b0-bc04-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/5ae6/live/48a3c9b0-bc04-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/5ae6/live/48a3c9b0-bc04-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/5ae6/live/48a3c9b0-bc04-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/5ae6/live/48a3c9b0-bc04-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/5ae6/live/48a3c9b0-bc04-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/5ae6/live/48a3c9b0-bc04-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/5ae6/live/48a3c9b0-bc04-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL/EPA/Shutterstock Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia take part in a flower-laying ceremony" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL/EPA/Shutterstock Patriarch Kirill (R) has stood firmly behind Vladimir Putin and his Church has spoken of the invasion of Ukraine as a "holy battle"

The allegations towards Hilarion started in June 2024, from 23-year-old Japanese citizen George Suzuki, who started working for him after his arrival in Budapest.

The previous theology pupil accuses him of sexual misconduct in addition to working for Russia's FSB intelligence company.

He runs his personal YouTube channel, and has posted additional allegations utilizing video and audio clips recorded in Budapest.

A few of these, Hilarion says, have been doctored. He advised the BBC he would refute every in flip in court docket.

Metropolitan Hilarion admits errors in his therapy of Suzuki, however denies sexual harassment in addition to spying.

These are tough moments for a person who, throughout his 13 years because the Church's "overseas minister", engineered a rapprochement with the Catholic Church that led to a historic summit between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill in Cuba in 2016.

It was the primary assembly between the heads of the 2 Church buildings because the nice schism of 1054.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/a5b3/live/dd6a8890-bbfa-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/a5b3/live/dd6a8890-bbfa-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/a5b3/live/dd6a8890-bbfa-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/a5b3/live/dd6a8890-bbfa-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/a5b3/live/dd6a8890-bbfa-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/a5b3/live/dd6a8890-bbfa-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/a5b3/live/dd6a8890-bbfa-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/a5b3/live/dd6a8890-bbfa-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="GREGORIO BORGIA/POOL/AFP Pope Francis (L) and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill embrace during a historic meeting in Havana on February 12, 2016" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> GREGORIO BORGIA/POOL/AFP In February 2016, Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill held the primary assembly between two leaders of their Church buildings for a millennium

Hilarion's case was given added urgency final week when the Czech authorities mentioned it was contemplating imposing sanctions on him in response to the allegations towards him.

His place on Russia's battle in Ukraine has not modified.

"Any battle is a tragedy, and the Church is all the time with the struggling folks. That is as a lot as I can say."

Hilarion's supporters concern that Kremlin hardliners are actually out to destroy him.

"Given the way in which Putin's regime operates, it might hardly be stunning if, along with his dramatic demotion in ecclesiastical phrases, there had additionally been a willpower to guarantee that his popularity was broken in no matter methods might be organized," the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, advised the BBC.

"The complete information stay unclear, however there's a Kremlin modus operandi that appears recognisable right here."

The BBC has been involved with George Suzuki. He alleges that Hilarion started sexually harassing him quickly after his arrival in Budapest.

Hilarion denies harassment of any sort.

In response to him, in August 2023, his aide returned to Japan to go to his household, and returned to Budapest three weeks later "a modified man", tense, and unfriendly.

Hilarion additionally says that he has data that Suzuki visited Moscow the identical month.

Round this time a brand new character, Veronica Suzuki, enters the story - his aide's grandmother, who had taken custody of George Suzuki as a baby.

She joined him in Budapest and stayed for weeks in luxurious motels, paid for by Hilarion.

In January 2024, George Suzuki abruptly disappeared, then wrote to Hilarion from Japan, pleading sickness and household issues.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/655b/live/e01f52e0-bbfb-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/655b/live/e01f52e0-bbfb-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/655b/live/e01f52e0-bbfb-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/655b/live/e01f52e0-bbfb-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/655b/live/e01f52e0-bbfb-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/655b/live/e01f52e0-bbfb-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/655b/live/e01f52e0-bbfb-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/655b/live/e01f52e0-bbfb-11f0-8137-87774ba307f6.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP A man wearing Russian Orthodox clothing addresses the media following an extraordinary session of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2018" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP Metropolitan Hilarion served for 13 years because the Russian Orthodox Church's head of overseas relations (file pic)

Hilarion provided to ship €2,000 (£1,760) a month, then obtained an electronic mail from Veronica Suzuki, demanding €384,000 - to be paid into her account, in trade for destroying "proof" her grandson had collected.

He reported her to the Hungarian police for extortion, then discovered that three costly watches had been stolen, and money value in whole €90,000 (£79,000).

He advised police, and on the premise of fingerprints, DNA and safety digicam footage, a world warrant was issued for George Suzuki's arrest.

The stolen items had been later returned, however the former aide turned down Hilarion's provide of mediation to have the arrest warrant towards him eliminated.

In June 2024, Suzuki started accusing Hilarion of sexual harassment, ostentatious wealth, and most not too long ago, collaboration with the FSB.

In a single video posted on YouTube, Hilarion could be seen getting right into a mattress the place one other determine is mendacity, apparently asleep.

In one other, Hilarion fires a pistol in a taking pictures vary which George Suzuki alleges belongs to the FSB headquarters in Moscow.

In an audio clip, Hilarion could be heard apparently warning his aide that issues will go badly for him if he leaves his service and returns to Japan.

In his BBC interview, Hilarion says that he has proof that the video and audio clips have been doctored, however refuses to go additional.

"My attorneys suggested me to not remark publicly on any materials, be it textual, visible or audio, launched by him or taken by journalists from [George Suzuki's] assortment, earlier than they're examined by the court docket."

"My first mistake was that I allowed him to come back to Hungary," Hilarion advised the BBC. He additionally regrets agreeing to the household's "monetary calls for".

Regardless of what he describes as his ordeal, Hilarion stays loyal to the Russian Orthodox church, and to Patriarch Kirill.

He was investigated by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and final December he was retired from his place as head of the Budapest diocese and transferred to the Church within the Czech metropolis of Karlovy Fluctuate.

However the Czech authorities's choice to think about imposing sanctions on him places his future there in jeopardy and will drive him to return to Russia.

"It's their liberty to determine who they need within the Czech Republic and who they do not need," Hilarion mentioned. He would similar to to speak to them earlier than they do.