The Russian Orthodox Church has issued no official communiqué on the death of the Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic, although prayers were said for his soul in several of its churches. The point was made by a source of the Patriarchate of Moscow in a briefing to the Russian press agency Interfax adding that not even the Serbian Orthodox Church had issued any official communiqué. The Serbian Church notes the Patriarchate of Moscow had formally requested the resignation of Milosevic in 1999 and Patriarch Pavle was one of the first to recognise the rival of Milosevic, Vojislav Kostunica, as legitimate President in 2000. But although the Patriarch had sharply criticized the Serb leader, Milosevic always had supporters within the hierarchy of the Serbian Church and immediately after his death prayers were recited for the repose of his soul in various Serbian churches. “We know that the feelings of the Serbian people about their leader differ said the arch-priest Nikolay Balashov, secretary of the external relations department of the Patriarchate, in a statement to the Interfax agency . We have no right to judge his activity now that he stands before judgement in heaven, about whose rectitude there can be no doubt”. Balashov criticized the International Tribunal in The Hague for having denied Milosevic the chance to receive medical treatment in Russia. “It seemed he said an inhumane decision”.
