Do you have a better theory of what actually happened ? Please feel free to advance that explanation.
A fair number of observers do feel that 'the usual suspects' were to blame.
This essay by bp. Andrei [Erastov] of Yarraville [ Australia ] is flawed due to a strange assertion here :
"It is not an exaggeration to say that the only spiritual authority respected by anyone in the ROCA, was the humble Brother Joseph Munoz, who tried to remain inconspicuous.
"If Brother Joseph could be persuaded to join the side of those for union, that would be a decisive victory, but if the opposite occurred, and he would oppose union with the MP, it simply would not have happened."
That contention that everything hinged on Brother Jose's opinion regarding the Mp-Rocor merger is nothing short of bizarre. Further, there were plenty of seasoned and respected anti-MP Rocor clergymen.
Still, this breakaway faction Bishop holds the same belief, backing it up with the following anecdote which is unique in that it provides detail of a purported sinister encounter :
"It can be assumed that the KGB was monitoring Brother Joseph, learning his character and his weak points. He was stopped one time on a street in Paris by someone who showed his KGB identity card. He told Brother Joseph, “You are a bother to us. You understand? You bother us.” (One of Brother Joseph’s friends related this story.) It is possible that there were other attempts to frighten him."
http://rocana.org/page/home.en/477
The author, a noted iconographer but not necessarily the most astute political analyst, continues with the following premise. Brother Jose in his very last interview declined to take the Icon to Russia, as he did not want Her to be greeted by MP hierarchs. This would of course have been perceived as an insult. But was the MP really spending time listening to the Chilean brother's every word ? Not likely. Even if so, key Rocor figures had been hurling defiant statements about the illegitimacy of this organization calling itself the Moscow Patriarchate, and exposing the persecution of believers in the Soviet Union solidly for 60 years. Such an 'insult', especially one rather delicately put, would hardly have caused such an extreme reaction.
There must have been a deeper reason if indeed the KGB was after Brother Jose. I highly doubt that the FSB was motivated by fear that Brother Jose would swing the vote AGAINST the union, which - even without his supposed powerful influence in the matter - took yet another 10 years to come to pass after his sad demise on October 31, 1997 : 20 years ago tomorrow.
Nonetheless, we can speculate as to WHY the year and month were chosen as they were, IF this theory of a special service operation is true. The fact is that October 1997 was exactly 60 years after the infamous Bolshevik Revolution. [ < Called in Russia "the October Revolution" because of the Old Calendar date for Nov 7. ]
Might this not have been a general revenge on anti-Communist, anti-Soviet Rocor rather than something personal against the keeper of the Montreal Myrrhstreaming Icon ? A retribution exacted on symbolic Halloween - when evil spirits run their wildest out of each year - as the most shocking day to strike in the whole month of October 1997 >> ?
1st Afternote : would a KGB agent actually produce a laminated identity CARD the way an American FBI agent or police officer might do ? That sounds a little strange now that I think of it. It seems FSB officers, if true to their spy novel image, would rely on their menacing tone and veiled threats rather than politely producing documentation to verify their place of employment.
2nd afternote, one cannot dismiss the idea of greed having motivated this tragedy. How and where that could apply, I don't know.