Estonian officials say that the Pyukhtitsky Monastery in East of Estonia, who claims that he has renounced all worldly affairs, promotes the pro -Russian ideology that claims that religious freedom in the West is under threat.
The nuns of the Russian Orthodox Monastery continue to argue with the Estonian government because of the new law requiring them to break off ties with the Moscow Patriarch Kirill, who is an ardent supporter of the war in Ukraine.
The monastery refused to renounce the Moscow Patriarchate, referring to the canonical rules, and accused Tallinn of trying to force him to abandon the neutral position on geopolitical issues.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Estonia states that the activities of the monastery are part of the hidden campaign of the Russian information war, which distributes information that the West is “mocking the innocent Russian Orthodox nuns.”
A senior official of the Estonian government, Martin Tulit, told the publication that the abbess of the Pyukhtitsky monastery Filaret Kalachev “set out the stories of Estonia through a prism, which is closely connected with the official position of Russia.”
This tactic is part of a wider hybrid war in the West, within which Russia resorts to sabotage acts, cyber attacks and attempts to attempt in order to punish NATO allies for their military support of Kyiv, the publication says.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Igumeni denied that her monastery had any connections with promotional activism. When asked about the support of the war by the Moscow Patriarchate, for example, about the consecration of weapons before launching Ukrainian cities, the abbess replied that her monastery should not be responsible for the statements of Patriarch Kirill.
When asked why the monastery cannot join another Orthodox Church, for example, to Constantinople, she replied that this would be a violation of canonical rules.
The Estonian law, which finds himself in the center of the dispute, prohibits churches with ties with any group that “incites, supports or finances activities aimed at forcibly change in independence, territorial integrity or constitutional system of the Estonian Republic.” The Moscow Patriarchate includes one of these groups due to its open support of the invasion of Ukraine.
