Russian Patriarch Kirill Visits Moldova, Breakaway Transdniester
10/9/13
The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has visited Moldova and its breakaway region of Transdniester.
He consecrated a nunnery in Transdniester’s capital, Tiraspol, on September 9 after arriving the previous day from Moldova’s capital, Chisinau, where he met with Moldovan officials.
Kirill said he was conveying God’s message, which “must sound very loudly now because the world, especially Western Europe, is losing faith.”
The patriarch’s visit comes days after Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin warned Moldova over plans to sign an association agreement with the EU.
Rogozin said last week that such an accord could complicate efforts to resolve the conflict with Moscow-backed Transdniester, which has been de facto independent since the early 1990s.
