His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, Chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church Department for the External Relations, has commented on the recent statements from Patriarch Bartholomew:

"The Russian Orthodox Church still harbors hopes for the Patriarchate of Istanbul to recover clarity of mind and shift from the monologue mode to that of dialogue: this is the only way that inter-Orthodox problems can possibly be resolved. The conciliar mind of the Church might well find a satisfactory decision, as it happened many times in Church history."

"Primates of Local Churches ought to regularly meet face-to-face and discuss any outstanding issues," said His Eminence, "and should one of them speak for everyone else, claiming privileges he allegedly got from the apostles, this is sheer insanity."

"We are not about to support this mode of communication," concluded Metropolitan Hilarion," we will stick to the duty we are carrying out, and whenever clergymen or laymen from ecclesiastic bodies which associate themselves with a schism appeal to us for reception, we have no right to refuse them: such is our position."