Czech police release Russian bishop after ‘white powder’ found in his car

Czech police have released a Russian Orthodox bishop who was detained on suspicion of drug possession, after Moscow condemned the arrest as a politically motivated setup. Bishop Hilarion, also known by his secular name, Grigory Alfeyev, was stopped by police on Sunday in Karlovy Vary, a spa town in western Czechia popular with Russian tourists, after officers discovered containers of a white substance in the boot of his car. In a statement published on Tuesday after his release without charge, Hilarion said forensic tests had confirmed the substance was a banned narcotic, but insisted he had been framed. “The mere discovery of a prohibited substance does not answer the key question – how these items ended up in the vehicle in the first place,” his post on Telegram said. Hilarion, 60, heads the Russian Orthodox congregation in Karlovy Vary, which is home to a sizeable Russian diaspora. The Czech national drug headquarters had said the bishop’s vehicle was stopped after an anonymous tip-off was received alleging the transportation of narcotic and psychotropic substances. Russia’s foreign ministry called the arrest a “deliberate, orchestrated provocation”. The Russian Orthodox church described the incident as a “classic setup”, while Russia’s foreign ministry said it had summoned Czechia’s chargé d’affaires in Moscow, Jan Ondřejka, to formally protest against the detention. …