Filaret Vakhromeev, metropolitan of Minsk and Belarus, heads the Russian Orthodox Church in Belarus as patriarchal exarch of all of Belarus. An ethnic Russian, Filaret was born in Moscow in 1935 under the secular name of Kirill Vakhromeev.

In 1953 he entered a seminary and in 1954 the Moscow Theological Academy, which he completed with a doctorate in theology in 1961.

In 1959 he received the monastic tonsure under the name of Filaret.

He was ordained bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1965 and subsequently served at various church posts in Kaliningrad, Moscow, and Minsk.

Filaret was appointed metropolitan of Minsk and Belarus in 1978.

In 1989, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church organized the Belarusian Exarchate and Filaret was named the patriarchal exarch of all of Belarus.

In 1990, Metropolitan Filaret was elected a people's deputy to the Supreme Council of the Belarusian SSR.

Filaret is a strong advocate of rapprochement between Belarus and Russia and staunch supporter of policies of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.