Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, said on the air of RosTV that a split in the Orthodox Church could occur in Belarus, similar to what happened in Ukraine - but the likelihood of this is low.

“The likelihood that events in Belarus will develop according to the Ukrainian scenario, while, thank God, is small. The idea of \u200b\u200bautocephaly does not find any support among the church people, in the hierarchy, in the clergy.. But, of course, those forces that are interested in undermining the political situation, having seen what happened in Ukraine, and realizing that the church factor can play an important role in this, will be interested in promoting the idea of \u200b\u200bBelarusian autocephaly.. "

The hierarch clarified that these actions are aimed at the collapse of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Prior to this, the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, having visited the Zhirovichi Monastery, said that the enemies of the Belarusian state were going to declare autocephaly to the Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC).