Metropolitan Hilarion reportedly blocked from entering Switzerland

The news comes from colleagues at kath.ch, who report on events that took place in late March 2022 but were only made known by a source (see below) in recent days. Hilarion (Alfeyev), Metropolitan of Volokolamsk - until a few months ago the 'Minister' of external relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, now relegated by the Russian Holy Synod to Hungary - had an appointment with the Catholic Archbishop of Vilnius in Switzerland, Monsignor Gintaras Grušas, currently president of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE), whose seat is in St Gallen (CH). However, Hilarion was unable to attend the meeting, reports the Catholic portal kath.ch, as the Metropolitan was reportedly detained at Geneva airport. In reporting the news, kath.ch speaks of an "explosive" revelation.

Ecumenism expert Barbara Hallensleben of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) discusses the case in her recent essay published in the Herder-Korrespondenz: about a month after the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the 56-year-old Hilarion - at that time still to all intents and purposes the right-hand man of Metropolitan Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, who makes no secret of his support for Vladimir Putin's war - had a meeting with the CCEE President on his agenda. The meeting 'ended on 28 March 2022 at Geneva airport, where Metropolitan Hilarion was expelled as an illegal migrant because a European country - unbeknownst to him - had blocked his Schengen visa', reads the text signed by Barbara Hallensleben.

Hilarion was not on the European Union (EU) sanctions list at the time of the events, nor was his superior, Patriarch Kirill. To this day, neither one nor the other appears on such lists (in early June, the EU had included Kirill in the Sixth Sanctions Package against Russia, but under pressure from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the name was removed from the lists).

Kath.ch explains: "Only Lithuania, Great Britain and Canada have officially imposed sanctions on Kirill, given his close proximity to Putin", and reports the response of a spokeswoman for the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), who would neither confirm nor deny the blocking of Hilarion's entry into Switzerland. Instead, the spokeswoman reportedly referred to the Schengen Regulation, according to which an individual country can refuse entry to a person, and therefore 'all member states are obliged to implement this measure and refuse entry to the Schengen area to the person reported'. It is unclear which EU country put Hilarion on the red list. Barbara Hallensleben provides no evidence in her documentation, and would not reveal to kath.ch the source of her claim.

"A Schengen state has the possibility to enter a so-called alert in the system, which usually leads to the refusal of a visa," said lawyer Jonas Bornemann from the University of Constance, questioned by kath.ch. -. In this case, Switzerland can still issue a visa that is only valid for Switzerland. However, this is at the discretion of the Swiss authorities'.

Hilarion could therefore have gone to any Swiss representation abroad to apply for a territorially limited visa for entry into Switzerland, which, after 'weighing up public and private interests', could have granted a visa for entry into the Confederation. It is unclear why CCEE did not make use of this provision: it could have approached the Swiss authorities and applied for a visa for Hilarion's visit. Here too, kath.ch did not receive a reply to the question addressed to CCEE.

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