The Russian Orthodox Church criticized the Estonian government for its attempts to ban the Estonian Orthodox Church

Relations between the Estonian authorities and the Estonian Orthodox Christian Church have deteriorated after the country’s Ministry of the Interior demanded that religious organizations bring their activities into compliance with new legislative requirements by the end of 2024. According to Romfea.gr, the Russian Orthodox Church viewed these actions as pressure on believers and a manifestation of “police state” policies.

According to information provided by the Estonian public broadcaster ERR, Estonian authorities have issued a strict ultimatum to religious organizations: they must sever all administrative ties with the Russian Orthodox Church and elect a new primate by December 28. Otherwise, the ministry threatens to forcibly suspend the organizations’ activities.

Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, an advisor to Patriarch Kirill, emphasized in his comments to the RIA Novosti news agency that such threats are a continuation of systematic pressure. He noted that the situation involving coercion to sever ties and artificially stoked Russophobia leads to a gross violation of fundamental human rights.

“Threats to forcibly shut down a religious organization—which the Estonian Ministry of the Interior has made on more than one occasion— create a very unfavorable image of the country as a police state, in which artificially stoked Russophobia is used to deny basic human rights,” said Archpriest Nikolai Balashov.

It is worth noting that tensions in church-state relations in Estonia have persisted for a long time. In particular, earlier in 2024, Metropolitan Evgeny (Reshetnikov) was forced to leave Estonia after the country’s authorities refused to renew his residence permit. The Moscow Patriarchate expressed concern over the fate of Estonian believers and called on international human rights organizations to pay attention to these developments.