MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. Africa’s Patriarchal Exarchate is effectively bypassing the Western sanctions and the anti-Russian discriminative measures will hurt more those countries who initiated them, head of the African Patriarchal Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church Metropolitan of Klin Leonid said in an interview with TASS.
"Naturally, we face certain sanctions. T would refrain from dwelling on the problems not to play into the hand of those people and ill-wishers who are involved in it. I would only say that these sanctions come and go. Anyway, we are effectively bypassing them within the legal framework," he said.
Kenya’s media reported earlier that due to the anti-Russian sanctions, in particular, due t the disconnection from the SWIFT system, African clergy are allegedly receiving no money from Russia and are returning to the Patriarchate of Alexandria they once left for the Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian Orthodox Church said later that the African Exarchate continues to support its clergy and the above-mentioned reports are not true.
According to Metropolitan Leonid, those countries, which impose discriminative measures against Russia and are seeking to "cancel" Russia and Russian culture, simply don’t understand which problems they will have to face. "Today, these sanctions against us are hitting their countries and commonwealths with the other side of the oar. Moreover, they are killing their worn future with their own hands. <…> The only can "cancel" themselves. They will never be able to "cancel" either Russian culture, or the Russian Orthodox Church, or Russia. <…> They are not in the same weight category as we are," he said.
The Patriarchal Exarch visited Egypt on June 24-28 and conducted the first divine service in Africa as the head of the Exarchate. The African Patriarchal Exarchate was set up by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on December 29, 2021, after the Patriarchate of Alexandria recognized the schismatic structure in Ukraine.