Metropolitan of Belarus urges Instigators of the Ukrainian crisis to remember the Last Judgment

Minsk, April 21, 2014

"It is not only Ukrainians who are guilty of what is going on (in the Ukraine),” he said, “but also those who are instigating unrest in this country, stirring it up with financial support, arms, and ideology are guilty as well." The metropolitan has suggested that these people ought to act according to their conscience. "We all will appear before God on the Day of Judgment,” noted head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church. And then it will be revealed who financed, who supported, who fomented unrest, and who warred."

Which foreign instigators the Metropolitan was referring to remained unspecified by the TV channel.

Earlier, before his appointment to the post of head of the Belorussian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Paul had criticized protests in Russia, noting that intelligence services of the West had been responsible for them. He also warned organizers of so called "color revolutions", that Moscow would possibly take extreme measures in response to external pressure. "If they keep on plaguing us, and our people are driven into a corner, then, in despair, we will have no choice but to open the Chernobyl tap... And in this case everyone will suffer: Americans as well as prosperous Europeans. And they actually have something to lose," stressed the hierarch.

Metropolitan Paul has been head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church since December 2013. He arrived at the republic from Russia, where he had been head of the Metropolia of Ryazan. Previous to his appointment in Ryazan, Metropolitan Paul also served in the Department of External Relations of the Moscow Patriarch, and in the MP mission in Jerusalem. He was head of the Moscow Patriarchate parishes in the United States from 1992‑1999, after which he was appointed bishop of Vienna, Austria.