Kiev announced sanctions against 21 hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky announced the imposition of sanctions against 21 hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church and the presiding bishop of the Russian United Union of Evangelical Christians (Pentecostals) Sergei Ryakhovsky. Restrictive measures were introduced by the decree of the Head of the Republic and the decision of the National Security and Defense Council. Among the hierarchs affected by the measures are the head of the synodal department of the ROC for relations with society and the Media, Vladimir Legoyda, his deputy Vakhtang Kipshidze, as well as the nephew of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Mikhail Gundyaev, who represents the ROC in the World Council of Churches and other international organizations in Geneva.

The term of sanctions is 5-30 years. Six people were sanctioned for thirty years: Metropolitan Hilarion of Budapest and Hungary (Grigory Afeev), Archpriests Artemiy Vladimirov, Andrey Tkachev, Nikolai Balashov, Archbishop Pitirim of Syktyvkar and Komi-Zyryansky (Pavel Volochkov), professor of the Moscow Theological Academy Alexey Osipov.

"The more indiscriminate sanctions become, the more they lose touch with common sense, the more distant the achievement of peace becomes", - Vladimir Legoyda commented earlier on Kiev's decisions. Recall that in mid-January Zelensky introduced personal restrictions against 198 citizens of the Russian Federation.

The sanctions were directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, TV presenters Dmitry Guberniev and Boris Korchevnikov, CEO of RBC Nikolay Molibog, blogger Dmitry Puchkov (Goblin), Dean of Moscow State University Vitaly Tretyakov and ex-head of the Moscow region Boris Gromov.

At the end of last year, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia was banned from entering the territory of the European Union. He is sure that some Western countries purposefully seek to obstruct the patriarch's activities at the international level in order to deprive him of the right to vote.