The head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s external affairs department, Metropolitan Hilarion, told a radio program that “… in Russia, there is no recognized, by the state, Church; there never was a state Church, all religions are equal before the law.”
His Eminence, the Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, added that relations between the Church and state in the country are defined by two main principles, namely, a mutual non-intervention concept in each other’s affairs, rather, mutual cooperation in sectors where such actions are mutually acceptable.