The Czech Republic has revoked the permanent residency of Archpriest Nikolai Lischenyuk, 51, who served as representative of the Russian Orthodox Church at its representation church in Karlovy Vary from 2006 to 2022. Before that, he served at the Church of St. George in the Russian Embassy in the Czech Republic from 2001 to 2006.

Although the Czech security authorities have provided no evidence of any political activities on the part of Fr. Nikolai, they are accusing him of "creating an influence structure with the support of Russian state authorities and could threaten the security of the state,” reports denikn.cz. The decision to expel the priest comes a year after His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia was placed on the Czech Republic’s national sanctions list.

According to RIA-Novosti, Fr. Nikolai’s residence permit was initially canceled in August 2023. He challenged the decision all the way up to the Constitutional Court, which ultimately rejected his appeals in June. He was ordered to leave the country within 30 days. However, Fr. Nikolai has already been serving in Moscow for two years now, having been appointed rector at a church in the Russian capital in November 2022 (he has also served as Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations since August 2022). At the same time, Fr. Nikolai has temporarily retained the status of rector of the Sts. Peter and Paul representation church in the Czech Republic.

The Czech Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Security and the Czech Senate held a closed meeting in July, after which it was announced that the authorities would study the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church. “Our goal is to study the interrelationships and activities of this organization, to understand whether in its statements, for example, it supports Russia’s actions against Ukraine and whether it’s a participant in sabotage activities against the Czech Republic,” a Czech senator said.

This is the latest in a series of actions in Eastern European and Baltic states against Moscow Patriarchate clergymen. In September 2023, the head of the Russian Church’s representation in Sofia, Fr. Vassian (Zmeev), and two others were expelled from Bulgaria, also deemed national security threats. Fr. Vassian was also banned from entering North Macedonia. In February of this year, His Eminence Metropolitan Evgeny of Tallinn and All Estonia was forced to leave the country, having been denied the renewal of his residency permit, despite state authorities acknowledging several times that they have observed no actual suspicious activity from the Church. (Quelle: www.orthochristian.com, 9. August 2024)