The European Union imposed sanctions against an ROC metropolitan
The updated list of restrictions includes more than 80 individuals accused of supporting the actions of state authorities.
The European Union has included Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) in the updated list of persons under sanctions. Brussels imposed restrictions on the hierarch, as well as on a number of Russian officials, accusing them of supporting the actions of state authorities. This was reported by Radio Svoboda.
According to the published data, more than 80 individuals and legal entities from Russia and other countries were added to the updated EU sanctions list. Among them are Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), as well as Russian Prosecutor General Alexander Gutsan and former children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov.
Brussels claims that these measures are aimed at those who, in the opinion of European officials, support the Russian authorities or “help circumvent previously imposed restrictions.”
It should be recalled that Metropolitan Tikhon headed the Crimean Metropolia in October 2023 by decision of the Holy Synod of the ROC. In this position, he replaced Metropolitan Lazarus, who was retired “with an expression of gratitude for the archpastoral labors borne over 43 years.”
Earlier, in June 2022, the Synod in Moscow decided to accept the Dzhankoy, Simferopol, and Feodosia dioceses which were then “united into a metropolia” into the direct canonical and administrative subordination of Patriarch Kirill.
The ROC explained this decision by the “practical impossibility of regular communication between these dioceses and the Kyiv Metropolia.” For its part, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church did not officially recognize this decision. Metropolitan Tikhon himself then compared his new place of service to Kolyma.
