Metropolitan Hilarion has returned to Russia following the incident in the Czech Republic
Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church returned to Moscow after being detained in the Czech Republic on suspicion of drug trafficking, but was later released without charges. He arrived in Russia on a flight from Istanbul on the night of May 30.
This was reported by Russian Telegram channels.
Hilarion (Grigory Alfeyev) is the former head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. On May 24, the car in which Hilarion was traveling was stopped by Czech law enforcement officers. They discovered “four small containers with a white substance” in the trunk. The metropolitan was detained, but on May 26, he was released without charges being filed.
Hilarion categorically denied any involvement in drug trafficking. He also stated that in recent months he had received anonymous threats demanding that he leave his post in the Czech Republic.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called Ilarion’s detention a “staged provocation” and, in protest, summoned the Czech chargé d’affaires.
The former influential figure of the Russian Orthodox Church called his detention in Karlovy Vary a planned provocation and categorically denied any involvement with the four containers of white powder that police discovered during a search of his car’s trunk. Ilarion published a video message in which he complained about the unsatisfactory conditions of detention at the Czech temporary detention center in Ungošť—specifically, the lack of hot meals, bedding, and personal hygiene items. The metropolitan’s defense team also highlighted significant procedural violations, pointing to the absence of witnesses and proper video documentation during the search of the vehicle by law enforcement officers.
Despite the fact that a Czech laboratory analysis later officially identified the seized white substance as a narcotic, on Tuesday, May 26, Ilarion and his videographer were released from custody without any formal criminal charges being filed. Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs lodged a diplomatic protest with Prague and summoned the Czech diplomat in Moscow, characterizing the actions of the Czech police as a premeditated political campaign aimed at “discrediting Orthodoxy.”
