Skandal erupts-Met Hilarion[Alfeyev]

[Barbara]

The MP Synod has decided finally that Met Hilarion [Alfeyev] would be retired as a ruling hierarch.
BUT - sent to serve in the podvorie, I think it is, in the Czech Republic.

That verdict is interesting. Why wouldn't the former head of External Relations have been either retired completely or reinstated elsewhere besides Hungary ?

It seems Met Hilarion will be able to still have liaisons with various international figures from his new abode in Prague. So he may do some PR for the Russian Federation or possibly act as an intermediary.

Notably, it was determined that the video footage provided by Gregory Suzuki as "evidence" against Met Hilarion was all faked.

Nonetheless, the MP Synod pointedly exhorted him to keep control of his "inner circle". This was surely a reference to that sleazy hanger-on Suzuki.

[Barbara]

More on the dangers of faked videos aimed to defame people today :

The Russian Legal Information Agency has released findings from a forensic technical examination of video and audio materials that were used to discredit Met. Hilarion, arguing that they are sophisticated forgeries.

The forensic analysis, conducted by the certified Truth Center for Law and Forensic Expertise, demonstrated that both the video and audio materials had been manipulated. Experts found evidence of multiple technical alterations, including frame manipulation, artificial lighting changes, disproportionate scaling, and deliberate blurring of facial features. The audio recording, purportedly showing the Metropolitan discussing his wine collection, was also shown to contain signs of digital manipulation that made it impossible to authenticate the speaker's identity...

"Cybersecurity experts interviewed by RAPSI warned that this case highlights the growing threat of sophisticated digital forgeries. “With current technology, it’s possible to create fake audio or video evidence that could implicate anyone in wrongdoing within a couple of hours,” noted one expert from a major Russian IT company.

Legal experts emphasize that in today's digital age, only analog recordings on physical media can be considered completely reliable evidence."

https://orthochristian.com/164081.html

[Barbara]

Specifically, Met Hilarion [Alfeyev] is being posted to the St Peter and Paul Church in Karlovy Vary ! This is the biggest Orthodox Church in the Czech Republic, finished in 1893.

The architecture was copied from a Church of which I am fond, the Holy Trinity Church [mentioned on Euphrosynos Cafe] which used to be the Optina Podvorie in Moscow. This is in Ostankino. I really like that classic style.

[Barbara]

Here is another view of the St Peter and Paul Church, Karlovy Vary.
The most famous Church in this famous spa town is the Catholic St Mary Magdalene, in classic Central European style.
But surely the prettiest among the number present in the town is St Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church [there is another St Peter and Paul Church, strangely, which post WW2 has belonged to the Czechoslovak Hussite church]




"After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, spas and tourism began to develop rapidly again. The spa buildings were reconstructed and the spa became competitive again within Europe.

The spa became popular with Russian clientele, and brought many Russian investors and developers to the city and its surroundings."

This might have been part of the reason why Met Hilarion [Alfeyev] is posted to Karlovy Vary. While pre-WW1, German-speakers dominated the area, these were mostly expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement.

This part of the Czech Republic is Bohemia, which borders what used to be East Germany. Thus the many German and other European tourists who visited this famous spa town in large numbers up through the 19th century and beyond.

In recent years before the Ukraine war, the Russian population had grown. Officially estimated at 3,000 out of nearly 50,000, most sources believe the number was higher.

Then came a ban by the Czech government for Russians to enter the country as tourists. However, some do receive medical releases to be treated at the spa, highly popular with Russians. These come to the picturesque town for intensive mineral water treatments -- unlike other Westerners who don't take the treatments seriously, staying only a few days.

According to the NYT Feb 3, 2023, "Missing From Czech Spa Town Popular with Russians":

"“Westerners like so-called wellness for a few hours, but Russians go for real treatment that lasts many days,” said Mr. Mirzayev, [a] hotelier. “We would love to have English guests, but they just go to Prague to drink beer."

"Still around, but hidden behind the high walls and fences of their villas in the forest, are a few of the Russian plutocrats who inspired John le Carré in “Agent Running in the Field,” his final novel before his death in 2020, to make Karlovy Vary the setting for a dramatic encounter between a British spy and Arkady, a jaded Russian oligarch who used to work for British intelligence.

“I love best my Karlovy Vary,” Arkady tells his former handler. “We have an Orthodox cathedral."
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/worl ... rists.html

[Agios_Irineos]

I was about to say, Karlovy Vary is a well known spa town. Met. Hilarion will no doubt enjoy himself there....

[Barbara]

Yes !! Right !!! We'll hope in a more tame, constructive way in THIS posting to Central Europe.

I always heard about Karlovy Vary [Karlsbad], and also Marianske Lasne, [Marienbad]. In popular culture, the latter was publicized by a strange surreal type film "Last Year at Marienbad", some people may remember that title as it is catchy.

"Bad" in German is always "bath", not a negative statement. For example, in Germany there is Baden-Baden, a classic spa town, which I went out of my way to visit due to its prominence historically.

[Barbara]

Part of an article i had found earlier but not sure the source.
Shows a different angle of the Russian impact on Karlovy Vary up to just a few years ago, plus a little of the historical side of the famous spa town :

"Cyrillic everywhere. On the signs of shops and restaurants and posters aimed at tourists, Russian has taken the lead among all the languages and quite often exclusively, with little regard for English, German and even for Czech, the local language.

While walking along the streets with their elegant Art Nouveau buildings and imposing neoclassical colonnades, Karlovy Vary looks like a Russian enclave in the heart of Central Europe.

“In a tourist city like this, the knowledge and use of foreign languages is essential, but we do not quite understand the reason for all these Cyrillic notices and signs, as if they were the only ones present”, complain...an elderly retired Czechs couple, here on holiday for a few days.

Meanwhile, all around, you can hear only Russian.

The harmonious blend of nature and architecture creates an exceptional landscape, and the spring sunshine makes the whole city shine in all its glamour. All around is the narrow valley of the river Teplá, whose name means “hot” because its waters never freeze, even during a very cold winter.

Karlovy Vary, 50 thousand inhabitants, owes its name to Charles IV, King of Bohemia and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, who founded it in the fourteenth century."