Daily Journal:

It's sad and offensive what happened. After all, we were always told that this whole idea with the temple was simply intended to restore historical justice, to return property to the Russian state, that the local community would not be affected in any way by this matter, that perhaps some kind of long-term agreement would be renegotiated, etc. But these were all conversations; we did not receive any written documents on this matter. After the trial, a representative of the Russian government again said that the cathedral would be transferred to the balance of the state only when all litigation was over. But the court cases are far from over, we have filed for cassation, and if the next decision is not in our favor, there is still the European Court of Human Rights. Therefore, it is quite surprising for our association that there is suddenly such a rush. Vladimir Kozhin said that all previous conversations were conducted under the influence of emotions, but now the situation is different, now we need to look to the future. Let's see what this future brings us.

While the Russian Orthodox Church has not shown itself in any way, we have not received any news from the Moscow Patriarchate. While everything is happening in words, there are no documents. Negotiations are coming with the Exarchate and the Orthodox Association of Nice. They complain to us that we charge an entrance fee to the cathedral - 3 euros, outside of services. But this is the money on which the cathedral lives. This is a significant issue from an economic point of view. We have nine ministers in the cathedral, three priests, one of whom, the rector Father John Gate, works for free, cleaners, security guards, etc. The website has a full report on what we spend this money on; the entrance fee covers the cost of salaries (for comparison: the annual budget of the St. Nicholas Church - just over 500 thousand euros - is equal to half the monthly budget of the St. Daniel Monastery - "EZH" ). In general, this whole story with Nice is very negative for the reputational image of the Russian Federation; one thing was announced, but something else is being done. But what to do...

Mikhail Sollogub - Secretary of the Council of the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe