Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Läenemets intends to put forward a motion before Parliament to recognize the Moscow Patriarchate as a terrorist organization in order to ban its operations on the country’s territory.
This is reported by Postimees.
Earlier, representative from the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (EOC MP) stated that they are not under the direct authority of the Moscow Patriarch and cannot be responsible for statements made in Moscow in support of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Thus, the local church, in fact, rejected the demand of the minister to withdraw from under the influence of Russian Patriarch Kirill.
According to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, based on research run by the ministry and the assessment from by the Security Police that he has just seen, he as the Minister of Internal Affairs has no other choice but to take measures himself to break the ties between the EOC MP and the Moscow Patriarch.
“Taking into account the existing context, I, as the Minister of Internal Affairs, have no other choice but to propose to the Riigikogu to declare the Moscow Patriarchate a terrorist organization that supports terrorism in its operations. The Minister of Internal Affairs will be able to apply to court and offer to ban the activities of the church organization operating here. This will not affect parishioners, it does not mean that churches will be closed, but it means that the ties with Moscow will be severed,” the minister said.
He also emphasized that today the Moscow Patriarchate is subordinate to the Russian dictator Putin, who, in fact, leads terrorism around the world.
