Leading Russian Bishop Dismissed Amid Alleged Poker Scandal
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One of the Russian Orthodox Church’s most senior bishops in Europe has been abruptly removed from his post for “disciplinary reasons” — though reports suggest the real issue may be his unexpected interest in poker.
According to Russian outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe, Metropolitan Nestor has been defrocked and is under investigation for allegedly using church funds to enter tournaments, amid speculation that his softer stance on the war in Ukraine also played a part.
Who Is The "Poker Priest"?
On November 8, Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, announced that Metropolitan Nestor, who oversaw parishes across France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, had been dismissed and placed under church investigation.
Metropolitan Nestor, whose secular name is Evgeny Sirotenko, was born in Moscow in 1974 and entered the Moscow Theological Seminary in 1995.
He became a monk in 1998, taking the name Nestor, and was ordained a priest soon after. He went on to serve parishes across France, and rose steadily through the Church hierarchy before finally being appointed Metropolitan of Korsun and Western Europe in 2022, overseeing the Church’s activities across much of Western Europe.
However, a quick Google search shows that Sirotenko has also been active on the poker scene. His Hendon Mob profile shows he has earned more than $47,000 in prize money, including 12 cashes in 2025 alone, in destinations such as the Netherlands, France, Cambodia and the Czech Republic.
Sirotenko appears to play regularly at the Circus Club Paris, winning a €350 tournament earlier this year at the same venue where he recorded the largest cash of his career, winning a €500 tournametn for €7,664.
While these buy-ins may not be that of a super high roller, the Russian Orthodox church takes a dim view on gambling, with Orthodox canon law technically forbidding clergy from gambling.
A Church Power Play
The decision to oust Nestor was made by Patriarch Kirill, who only learned of Nestor's poker-playing habits in the last weeks. According to Novaya, Nestor had travelled to the Czech Republic where he met with a fellow bishop and former head of foreign relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion.
Hilarion was exiled from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and now lives in Karlovy Vary — an hour away from King's Resort in Rozvadov, where Nestor has previously played and cashed.
Although there is no suggestion that Nestor had played poker on this trip, and the poker scandal dominates the headlines, this decision by Kirill comes against a wider backdrop involving not just a campaign for rehabilitation by Hilarion, but Nestor's quiet dissent over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In April 2022, Nestor signed a joint statement with a Spanish Catholic archbishop condemning the war and refused to punish a Madrid priest who called it “satanic.”
In Paris, parishioners are now collecting signatures in his defense, praising Nestor as a thoughtful and compassionate leader. Some even say they’d follow him if he broke with the Moscow Patriarchate and joined the more independent Constantinople Church.
In the end, poker may be the charge, but few doubt that the real game is power.
