The lawsuit was filed with the court on September 9, according to RBC, which cited the case file. A preliminary meeting between the judge and the parties to prepare for the proceedings is scheduled for November 2, Ekho reported.
Hilarion declined to comment to RBC. The case materials do not specify what exactly the claims against TV Rain concern.
Metropolitan Hilarion is the former head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate and a former member of the synod. In 2022 he was appointed Metropolitan of Budapest and Hungary.
In 2024, his former cell attendant Georgy Suzuki accused Hilarion of harassment. After that, the metropolitan was sent to serve as an ordinary priest in Karlovy Vary.
In May, Czech police stopped a car in which Hilarion was traveling. Four small containers with a white powder were found in the vehicle, and an examination established that it was cocaine. The metropolitan and his driver were detained but soon released, with no link established between Hilarion and the find and no charges filed.
In late May, Hilarion returned to Russia. In June it was reported that Patriarch Kirill was sending him to serve in Brazil — at the churches of Peter and Paul in Santa Rosa and of John the Theologian in Campina das Missões. That order was suspended, and later the metropolitan was sent to serve at a convent in the Domodedovo district of the Moscow region.