Russian Orthodox Church denies pratriarch’s involvement in business projects
21/2/2012
MOSCOW – The Russian Orthodox Church has flatly denied the media publications stating that Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill traded in tobacco and oil in the 1990s and made billons on it.
The synodal information department said in a release issued on Monday that such publications “are false and deliberately defame the Holy Patriarch and the Russian Orthodox Church in general.”
These allegations are based on “rumors and speculation, unchecked statements, and biased opinions,” the document says.
“The allegations on the involvement of Patriarch Kirill, who was chairman of the External Church Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate in the 1990s, in control of a number of business assets in various sectors of the economy (tobacco business, oil industry, seafood, and automobile production) are false,” the statement says.
No solid proof of “such myths that have circulated in the media and on the Internet for 15 years” have been provided, and if such proof existed, “it would immediately be made public by people who are hostile to the Russian Orthodox Church,” the document says.
