Russia summons Czech diplomat to protest detention of senior Russian cleric

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that it had summoned Jan Ondrejka, the Czech charge d’affaires, to protest the detention in the Czech Republic of a senior Russian cleric.

The Russian side expressed a “strong protest” over the detention of Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, who was reportedly apprehended in the Czech Republic on Sunday, said a ministry statement.

Moscow described as “absurd and completely unfounded” the allegations related to the “production and trafficking of narcotic substances” brought against the cleric, who heads the Russian Orthodox congregation in Karlovy Vary, a town with a large expat population.

The ministry also argued that the police operation to detain the cleric, which it said had been launched on the basis of an anonymous report, indicated that the case was “planned and provocative in nature.”

Russia demanded the “unconditional and immediate release” of Hilarion and called for an end to what it described as pressure on representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Czech Republic, a former Soviet satellite country.