Late in the evening of November 8, Russian Patriarch Kirill suddenly dismissed the Patriarchal Exarch in Western Europe, Metropolitan of Korsun, who governs the Spanish-Portuguese dioceses and parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Italy, Nestor (Sirotenko), “in connection with the church-judicial proceedings initiated against him”. The temporary management of all these church structures has been entrusted to Metropolitan Mark of Ryazan, who last year also took over the management of the Budapest-Hungarian diocese of the ROC after the removal of Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeev from there due to a sexual scandal.
Familiar people comment that the patriarch has the right to remove a patriarchal exarch, but does not have the right to deprive a metropolitan of his diocese without a decision of the Holy Synod on the basis of a Supreme Ecumenical Court. However, in the conditions of dictatorship in the country, this style of governance is also being transferred to the Church.
Metropolitan Nestor (Sirotenko) is 51 years old and has served in France and Spain for more than 20 years. During these years, his name has not been involved in scandals, and the reviews about him from laypeople and clergy in his wide diocese (Korsun in France, Sourozh in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain-Portugal and parishes in Italy) have been positive. There is great unrest in the diocese, and a number of structures have even expressed readiness to leave the ROC and join the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Signatures are already being collected in his support in the Holy Trinity Church in Paris.
After the Russian army invaded Ukraine in February 2022, he published a joint declaration with a representative of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in Spain, condemning the actions of the Russian Federation on the territory of sovereign Ukraine. The document begins with an expression of “sympathy for our Orthodox brothers, Catholics and people of all confessions in connection with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” It recalls the anti-war commandments of the Gospel and calls “to stop violence and barbarism, and for conscience to listen to the voice of God, Who rejects evil and war.” Later, it speaks softly of Father Andrei Kordochkin from Madrid, who was personally removed by the patriarch, bypassing him as a diocesan hierarch. But Metropolitan Nestor did not follow the line from Moscow and for a long time patronized him, despite the pressure that then provoked the anger of the (then) most aggressive defender of the war, the “African Exarch,” Metropolitan Leonid (Gorbachev). In February 2023, Metropolitan Nestor’s vicar bishop, Peter (Prutianu), gave an interview to a Catholic publication in which he once again expressed sympathy for Ukraine (which is forbidden for Russian clergy) and hope that after the war all branches of Ukrainian Orthodoxy will unite as part of an independent (autocephalous) church.
In this spirit, Metropolitan Nestor’s recent unofficial meeting with the famous hierarch of the autocephalous OCU, Metropolitan Alexander Drabinko, who is called a “schist”, “nationalist” and “traitor” in Moscow, is also in this spirit, since until 2018 he was a hierarch of the Moscow Patriarchate and held leading positions in its Ukrainian structure.
The Russian free press reported that the formal reason for the removal of Metropolitan Nestor was his participation in international poker tournaments under the flags of Russia and France, where he participated under his secular name Yevgeny Sirotenko. Last year he took 20th place in the French championship, and this September he reached third place in another international tournament. According to the official statistics of “The Hendon Mob”, his total tournament winnings exceed 47 thousand dollars, with his largest one-time winnings being over 8 thousand dollars. This information is publicly available. The turning point came when a few weeks ago Metropolitan Nestor participated in a tournament in the Czech Republic and there he met with Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev), who had been “sent into exile” in Karlovy Vary. Metropolitan Nestor was part of the commission investigating the accusations against Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev).
According to unofficial data, Hilarion is currently in Moscow, as part of a campaign for his rehabilitation and an attempt to obtain a new high position in the Russian Orthodox Church. This is happening against the backdrop of a wave of publications against him in the Czech press and rumors that the Czech authorities, who consider the ROC temple in Karlovy Vary to be a cover for Russian special services, intend to declare the former “foreign minister” of the ROC persona non grata, as they have already done with the chairman of this temple, Archpriest Nikolai Lishtenyuk. According to Deacon Andrei Kuraev, the charges brought against Metropolitan Nestor will step on canons that have long been disregarded (the 42nd apostolic rule prohibits a bishop from playing gambling games, and the 50th of the Laodicean Council prohibits clergy from visiting places where such games are held). He recalls that in the pre-revolutionary Russian Church, preference was considered a fairly common form of “priestly entertainment” and without participation in such a card game it was almost impossible to create the necessary connections and gain trust in secular circles. At the same time, not one or two metropolitans remain without canonical consequences despite gross and public gay scandals and a number of other unacceptable actions. Now, in place of the influential metropolitan, another person loyal to Moscow’s current policy will be appointed, which is extremely important for the ROC in the conditions of the “cold war” with the West. “Ultimately, the Russian Orthodox Church has proven to be a reliable stronghold of Russian interests where access for ordinary Russian officials and intelligence officers is already very difficult. Against this background, replacing the moderate exarch of the ROC in Paris with someone more loyal to the Lubyanka seems completely logical,” concludes the material of “Novaya Gazeta Evropa” dedicated to this case.
