The Estonian Ministry of Internal Affairs said it was working on a bill to terminate the activities of the EOC

The Estonian Interior Ministry is drafting a bill to terminate the activities of the Estonian Orthodox Church (EOC) of the Moscow Patriarchate. This was reported by the republic's broadcasting portal ERR on January 8.

"According to current plans, parliament may pass the law in April," the report said.

According to Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets, the biggest instrument of influence of Russia and the Kremlin in Estonia is the subordinate Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

For his part, deputy chairman of the Centrist Party faction Vadim Belobrovtsev said that he had not received an answer as to what exactly the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate was guilty of.

"If the Orthodox Church had broken the law or incited people to break the law or there was some incident about which it could be said that the law had been broken in one way or another. The answer was unequivocal: no, no. Such evidence," Belobrovtsev commented.

Earlier, on November 1, 2024, the media reported on the plans of the Estonian Interior Ministry to amend the law on the Church, which could officially recognize the activities of the EOC MP banned on the territory of the country. The Estonian Interior Ministry explains the need to ban the EOC-MP as it is allegedly under the great influence of Russia.

Prior to that, on September 16, Oleg Leonov, deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on the development of civil society, issues of public and religious associations, said that Tallinn interferes in the religious life of citizens, forcing them to abandon the EOC-MP and join the opposing "ideologically correct" Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (EAPC) under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. According to the politician, these measures by Tallinn are part of the Russophobic policy of the Baltic states.

In August, the Estonian authorities demanded that the EOC cease all canonical ties with Moscow. As a result, under pressure from the government, violating the canons, the church changed its charter. In particular, the EOC MP removed from its name the mention of belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate. It was noted that the organization is assigned independence "in church-administrative, church-economic, church-educational and church-civil affairs". Earlier, on May 21, the first Orthodox parish in Estonia voted to leave the subordination of the Russian Orthodox Church.