THE spa city of Karlovy Vary, in the Czech Republic, traditionally popular with Russian visitors, is famous for its thermal springs and colonnades. Recently, however, it has gained increasing attention from the Russian Orthodox Church as Czech officials continue to enforce one of Europe’s strictest sanction regimes against Russia.

The Orthodox Church of St Peter and Paul, which opened in 1898, has changed ownership from the Russian Orthodox Church to the Hungarian diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, because of fears that its property assets might be frozen.

Patriarch Kirill’s diplomat Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) was “retired” to Karlovy Vary in December (News, 10 January). Last summer, he was confronted with allegations concerning sexual misconduct and a taste for extravagant living (News, 19 July 2024). He had been appointed as Metropolitan of Budapest and Hungary in 2022, when, it is believed, he was also granted Hungarian (and therefore EU) citizenship.

A previous Russian Orthodox representative in Karlovy Vary, Archpriest Nikolai Lischenyuk, a 51-year-old Russian citizen, was stripped of his honorary citizenship last month by the local council, after his expulsion last year by Hungary, which cited security concerns.

In response to the invasion of Ukraine, the Czech government enacted broad sanctions against Russia, which also affected Patriarch Kirill. He was the first person to be added to the Sanctions Act adopted in 2023.

Transferring the property to the ownership by the Church’s Hungarian diocese is an attempt by the Moscow Patriarchate to secure its ownership by relying on the friendly relationship between the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, and President Putin.

Hungary has consistently upheld its stance regarding Patriarch Kirill. In December, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Péter Szijjártó, described the EU’s most recent proposal for sanctioning the Patriarch as “crazy idea”.

At a press conference, Mr Szijjártó said that sanctioning church leaders was unproductive, and should be “avoided at all costs”.

In 2022, Hungary pressured EU representatives to remove Kirill’s name from a list of Russians to be sanctioned, saying that Hungary stood for “fundamental principles of religious freedom”.