Orban criticises EU plans to sanction head of Russian Orthodox Church
EU plans to impose sanctions on the head of the Russian Orthodox Church are an attack on religious freedom, says Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban.
Patriarch Kirill, one of Vladimir Putin's most fervent supporters, was put on a draft European Commission blacklist earlier this week.
Orban, in an interview with Hungarian public radio on Friday, said he is against the move, calling it an "issue of religious freedom".
EU ambassadors are meeting in Brussels on Friday to finalise a sixth round of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told MEPs earlier this week that the punitive measures would target the oil sector as well as people who act as the Kremlin's mouthpieces.
She did not name Kirill but media reports said he is expected to be included.
Kirill's support of Putin and the war has already drawn condemnation.
A Russian Orthodox church in Amsterdam split with the Moscow patriarchate in March. The clergy said then that " it is no longer possible for them to function within the Moscow Patriarchate and provide a spiritually safe environment for our faithful" in a statement posted on Facebook.
Pope Francis told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra that he told Patriarch Kirill during a 40-minute long phone conversation in March that "we are not state clerics" and warned him against becoming "Putin's altar boy". He also said Kirill spent their call reading odd "justifications for the war."
The Russian Orthodox Church criticised the Pope's comments in a statement on Thursday as "the wrong tone to convey the content of this conversation".
"Such statements are unlikely to contribute to the establishment of a constructive dialogue between the Roman Catholic and
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