The Russian Orthodox Church has broken off with the Constantinople Patriarchate. The decision was made at the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in Minsk.

As the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion told reporters, the Russian Orthodox Church believes that the lifting od anathem from the Patriarch Filaret and the Metropolitan Makar by the World Patriarchate was illegal.

The Metropolitan hopes that Constantinople will change the decision on granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church.