Updated | Ministry says priest purchased BMW from Maltese consulate employee

Updated with statement from Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Video shows aftermath of crash in Moscow.

The Maltese foreign ministry said a car involved in a Moscow car collision reportedly carrying diplomatic number plates, had been sold to a Russian priest by a Russian employee of the Maltese consulate to Russia.

An allegedly drunken Russian orthodox priest crashed a BMW sports car with Maltese diplomatic number plates, Russian news reports said, in a bizarre collision in Moscow that took place on 31 July.

But a ministry spokesperson has told MaltaToday that the BMW Z4 was formerly the property of consular office Nikola Soukmandzhiyev, which he had sold to Alexei Podovedov, an abbot known as Igumen Timofei. According to the spokesperson, Soukmandzhiyev - whom he insisted has no diplomatic clearance - had already sold the car to the priest when the collision occurred, and also said that it was Podovedov's father, and not the priest, that was driving the car.

Whilst this claim is not confirmed by Russian media reports, eyewitnesses claim the priest looked inebriated and high, something his lawyer has strongly denied.

The car crash happened late at night on 31 July late on Zatsepsky Val, but details only emerged only recently after eyewitness Irina Likholetova contacted a popular news website saying she feared the incident would be covered up because of the priest's status.

Likholetova claims several people arrived shortly after the incident to change the diplomatic number plates.

The Maltese foreign ministry has denied that Soukmandzhiyev came on the scene. "He was riding his bicycle somewhere at the time of the collision," the ministry spokesperson said.

Likholetova claimed the people who came on site took the licence plates off the car and offered her 350,000 rubles. The woman refused because she had full insurance.

The blue BMW crashed into a Volkswagen Touareg which was thrown to its left, and subsequently crashed into a Toyota Corolla. Likholetova said the BMW crossed seven traffic lanes before crashing into her Toyota.

"My friend's car has to be scrapped, and she suffered a concussion. The guilty party refused to take medical tests and there will be no criminal prosecution because the car was not his, but that of his friend with its Malta Embassy diplomatic licence plates," Likholetova told news website Gazeta.ru.

Likholetova said two of the eyewitnesses were doctors, who alleged that the priest was on drugs. She said the priest had "glassy eyes" when he emerged from the car.

The driver of the Volkswagen, identified as Una Driffm said she smelt alcohol when talking to the priest, and that he was "barely standing on his feet."

Podobedov is abbot of Moscow's Church of Elijah the Prophet, and one of several prominent senior priests who condemned the actions of punk group Pussy Riot for miming a "punk prayer" criticising President Vladimir Putin in the city's main cathedral in February. The trio were arrested and a court's verdict in their much-criticised trial on hooliganism charges is due on Friday.

However Podobedov himself provoked a scandal earlier this year for granting access to pop star to give a speech during a christening from the restricted ambone of his church: the same area used by Pussy Riot in their cathedral protest.

The Moscow Times reports that the Church has now declared that Podobedov has been on sick leave since July 31.

Vyacheslav Podoprigora, the priest's lawyer, said his client had been taking medicines for an illness before the collision, and was admitted to hospital with concussion and other injuries afterwards. "We are categorically against the assertion that it happened because he was drunk," he said.

"The person is sick, he is taking medication that could be mistaken by uninformed people for something else due to the smell," he said.

Podoprigora insisted the priest refused medical tests "unwittingly" after receiving injuries in the crash.

He also said the car was provided by "an orthodox person, a native of Bulgaria" for his need to "get somewhere."

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, a church spokesman, called on the police to investigate the crash. "I think one cannot hide from the truth here. The church authorities always evaluate these situations. Whether the person is guilty or not, it needs to be determined," he told Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei.