Metropolitan of Tashkent and Central Asia Vladimir does not trust the activities of the Catholic Church in Russia. "Papal missionaries in Russia talk sweetly about Christian unity and sister Churches. But St. Apostle James says "does sweet and bitter water pour from one and the same spring?" (Jam. 3:11) How does sweetness in Russia come together with bitterness in Ukraine?" Metropolitan Vladimir said in an interview published by the Monday issue of Izvestia.

There have been "beatings of Orthodox priests and believers, arson, and cordons of UNA-UNSO gunmen that barred Orthodox believers from the seized churches" in Ukraine, he said. "Pope John Paul II does not denounce such actions." "The Roman Catholic Church has played an evil role in the life of our motherland all throughout Russian history," he remarked.

The Pontiff "is not so much a religious figure as a stern and cunning politician of the anti-Orthodox and anti-Russian type, who acts under the disguise of a pious elder" and assigns about$ 500 million for strengthening his dioceses in Russia, the Metropolitan said.

Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II cannot meet with the Pope even to accept the miracle-working icon of Our Lady of Kazan, he said.

"Just imagine Osama bin Laden, who happens to find an autograph of Abraham Lincoln and decides to present it to President Bush personally. Lincoln is a national hero of the United States, but shaking hands with "the number one terrorist" would mean outrage upon the memory of the victims of September 11 for the chief of state. It is the same for the Patriarch, who cannot neglect the sufferings of Orthodox believers from Uniate violence for the return of sacred Orthodox objects," Metropolitan Vladimir said.