Metropolitan Filaret was on the shortlist of successors to Patriarch Alexy of Moscow but withdrew. Why?

MINSK, 23 December (BelTA) -  The documentary series  Time Chose Us on the Belarus 1 TV channel examined why Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk Filaret, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, refused to take charge of the Russian Orthodox Church after the death of Patriarch Alexy II, BelTA learned.Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia and Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, during a meeting between Aleksandr Lukashenko and representatives of the Orthodox Church, 2008

The last time Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia visited Belarus was in 2008. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church visited the All Saints Church in Minsk. It was then that the modern name of the temple was approved: Memorial Church in Honor of All Saints and in Memory of the Victims who Served to Save our Fatherland.Nobody could have imagined that the October visit of the Patriarch to Belarus would be the last one. Three months later, on 5 December, Patriarch Alexy II passed away in the country patriarchal residence in Peredelkino at the age of 79. The cause of death was acute heart failure.
Alexy II headed the Russian Orthodox Church for 18 years. After his death Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, was considered as one of his successors. But one of the oldest exarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church recused himself. Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, was elected Patriarch.
“Vladyka Filaret said: I propose the patriarchal seat to Metropolitan Kirill. From that moment Metropolitan Kirill was patriarchal locum tenens for 40 days, and then at a local council was elected Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia,” said  Mother Superior Gavriila of the Holy Nativity of the Mother of God Stavropegic Convent in Grodno.