The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) did not appoint bishops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, canonically related to the Georgian Patriarchate, and all information about this is erroneous, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, told RIA Novosti on Saturday.

“If Patriarch (Constantinople) Bartholomew really said so, then this is a delusion. The Russian Church does not have any bishop either in Abkhazia or in South Ossetia. We noticed long ago that the Patriarchate of Constantinople is poorly informed,” the metropolitan said.