EU imposes sanctions on ROC metropolitan

ROC Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov). Photo: Kommersant

The European Union has included Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) in its updated list of sanctioned persons. Brussels imposed restrictions on the hierarch, as well as a number of Russian officials, accusing them of supporting the actions of state authorities. This was reported by Radio Liberty.

According to published data, more than 80 individuals and legal entities from Russia and other countries were added to the updated EU sanctions list. Among them are Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), Russian Prosecutor General Alexander Gutsan, and former children’s ombudsman Pavel Astakhov.

Brussels says the measures are aimed at those who, in the view of European officials, support the Russian authorities or “facilitate the circumvention of previously imposed restrictions.”

Metropolitan Tikhon was appointed head of the Crimean Metropolis in October 2023 by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. In this post, he replaced Metropolitan Lazar, who was retired “with gratitude for the archpastoral labors he had carried out over 43 years.”

Earlier, in June 2022, the Synod in Moscow resolved to receive the Dzhankoi, Simferopol, and Feodosia eparchies, which were later “united into a metropolis,” into the direct canonical and administrative subordination of Patriarch Kirill.

The ROC explained the decision by citing the “practical impossibility of regular communication” between these eparchies and the Kyiv Metropolis. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, for its part, did not officially recognize the decision. Metropolitan Tikhon himself compared his new place of service to Kolyma.

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