Archimandrite barred from hearing says he’s been targeted for exposing ties to Russia

Archimandrite Dorothe Kurashvili, a priest of the Nativity of Christ Church in Tbilisi, has accused senior officials of the Georgian Orthodox Church of acting on behalf of Russian interests, saying that a disciplinary hearing held against him ignored canonical procedure and blocked media access. 

Kurashvili said he was refused entry to the church commission hearing alongside journalists and claimed the panel included conflicted members in violation of internal regulations. He asserted that his criticism of the ruling party, and his charge that Georgia has been “seized” by “oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili,” were the real cause of the process against him. 

“There are priests and bishops who, if you suspend them, nothing will remain of them. Whatever they suspend in my case, what I am will remain”, he claimed.