In Vologda, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church was called abroad to the Center "E"

In Vologda, the priest of the Vologda diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, abroad (ROCS), Alexander Lipin (Father Alexander), was summoned to a conversation in the EE center. Father Alexander himself told the OVD-info about this.

The day before, an employee of the Center “E” (counteracting the extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) told Father Alexander that he wanted to call him an official conversation in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Vologda region. Father Alexander asked to direct the agenda. A photograph of the agenda was sent through the WhatsApp messenger, in it Alexander Lipin was called for interrogation, but without indicating in what status and in what case. Within an hour, an employee of the EE center changed the photo of the agenda: now it was a call to the survey, but also without details. After that, Father Alexander refused to come to a conversation without receiving an official agenda.

The diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, in which Father Alexander serves, is not a registered religious organization and does not belong to the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. It is with this that the interest in him of law enforcement agencies is connected, Father Alexander is sure.

So, at one of the previous meetings, an employee of the Center “E” persuaded his father Alexander to register the organization in the justice authorities. “Registration is to put a cross on everything that we do. All previous checks showed that we do not violate anything - it suits us quite, we are law -abiding citizens, ”said Father Alexander.

The Vologda believers of the ROCs exist as a religious group, an Orthodox brotherhood based on public movement without registration - the law allows this, says Father Alexander. Services are held in house temples, they do not remember the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill. According to the priest, this causes dissatisfaction with the authorities.

Father Alexander was already faced with the influence of law enforcement agencies: the ROCZ several times sued the Moscow Patriarchate, his father Alexander was regularly called to the prosecutor for 5 years, and had to deal with the FSB and the OBEP.

• The Russian Orthodox Church was formed abroad several years after the 1917 revolution among Russian emigrants. The ministers of the Russian Orthodox Church opposed the cooperation of the church and the Soviet regime and believe that the Russian Orthodox Church, led by Patriarch Kirill, largely inherit this attitude. The main part of the Russian Orthodox Church restored Eucharistic communication with the Moscow Patriarchate. However, the founders of the Vologda parish refuse to do this.