Tallinn, October 6, 2025
Photo: err.ee
Estonian President Alar Karis has submitted the Churches and Congregations Act amendemnt, which aims to ban the Estonian Orthodox Christian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, to the Supreme Court (Riigikohus) and is requesting that it be declared unconstitutional.
According to the President’s assessment, the law continues to contradict the Estonian Constitution and disproportionately restricts freedom of association and religion, reports err.ee.
“We have legal means to control and limit the subversive activities of the Moscow Patriarchate directed against sovereignty and democracy. Current law not only permits but requires comprehensive oversight of religious associations. The Penal Code defines treason as a crime, which includes activities involving information influence. Thus, the question is not the absence of legal instruments, but their insufficient or incomplete use—when necessary, we must apply existing possibilities more decisively,” President Karis stated.
“In the event of a threat, religious associations would be prohibited from having not only administrative and economic ties, but also doctrinal connections with a foreign entity. Such a broad and unclear prohibition is not necessary. The legislator would achieve its goals if the prohibition were clearer and Estonian religious associations were required to sever only those external connections that are more specifically related to the threat,” Karis said.
According to him, a ban on administrative and economic ties would be sufficient; interference in doctrine is not required.
Karis noted that if the state begins to interfere in the teachings and religious rites of religious associations, the authority of a foreign religious leader among his supporters may, on the contrary, increase. “If the activities of religious associations could be restricted in the manner of the current law, then one would have to conclude that a similar prohibition could be established for other associations, including political parties. Such an approach is incompatible with the Constitution,” the President said.
“If the text of the law is unclear, ambiguous, and unreasonably broadly interpreted, then instead of solving problems, it may, on the contrary, add to them. In this case, security risks may not decrease but increase, that is, produce the opposite of the expected result: there will be more trials, not fewer,” the head of state emphasized.
President Karis declined to promulgate the amendment to the Churches and Congregations Act on April 24 and July 3 of this year. The Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) passed the law for the third time on September 18, requiring the President to either promulgate it or petition the Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional.
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