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An American Orthodox archbishop has apologized after he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Putin and President Donald Trump met last week at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, to discuss an end to Russia’s three-year-long war in Ukraine. After their summit, Putin met with Archbishop Alexei, the bishop of Alaska for the Orthodox Church in America.
The pair greeted each other warmly and exchanged gifts of holy icons, the Associated Press reported. Their seemingly friendly exchange prompted criticism from other church leaders who said Alexei should have rebuked Putin and called for peace in Ukraine.
Now, Alexei has apologized for the meeting.
“Last week, I greeted President Vladimir Putin during the summit in Anchorage in a peaceful spirit of hospitality after three days of diocesan wide prayer for peace,” he wrote on Friday. “Since then, I have heard from many who viewed that moment as a missed opportunity for a rebuke or demand for peace amid ongoing conflict and suffering. Again, I repeat, to all who experienced my actions as a cause of sorrow or confusion, I sincerely ask your forgiveness.”
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Archbishop Alexei meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15. Alexei has since apologized for the meeting. (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“I accept full responsibility for the confusion and pain my actions caused,” he added. “Our Church continually calls the faithful to prayer, to concrete works of mercy, and to the pursuit of peace and reconciliation for all who suffer.”
Two top leaders of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, Metropolitan Antony and Archbishop Daniel, called the meeting “a betrayal of the Gospel of Christ and scandalous to the faithful,” in an August 18 statement.
“At a moment when the Russian regime is responsible for the invasion of the independent and peaceful nation of Ukraine and for the death of hundreds of thousands, for the disappearance of countless innocents, for the tearing of families apart, and for the deliberate destruction of Ukraine,” the pair wrote. “To extend warm words of welcome and admiration to this ‘leader’ is nothing less than an endorsement of his actions.”
According to the New York Times, more than 500,000 deaths and injuries have been confirmed since the February 2022 invasion. Most of the casualties, 300,000, have been Russian military fighters.
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More than 500,000 deaths and injuries have been reported since the Russia-Ukraine war began in 2022. (REUTERS)
Before he apologized last week, Alexei issued a statement to Alaska priests defending the visit and explaining why he gifted holy icons to the Russian leader, the AP reported.
“When I expressed gratitude in that public moment, it was not praise for present politics, but a remembrance of the missionaries of earlier generations … who brought us the Orthodox faith at great cost,” Alexei said.
“I must be clear: the veneration we give to holy icons is directed not to the one who gives them, but to the saint or feast they represent,” he added. “Even if the greatest sinner were beside me, the honor passes not to him but to heaven itself.”
Metropolitan Tikhon of the Orthodox Church in America also issued a statement alongside Alexei on Friday, clarifying that he was not aware that the archbishop had scheduled a meeting with Putin.
“The encounter to which His Eminence Archbishop Alexei refers in his statement of apology was undertaken on his own initiative and was not authorized by the Holy Synod,” he wrote. “The canonical tradition insists that a bishop do nothing without the knowledge of the metropolitan; this meeting was arranged without my knowledge.”