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Moldova President Makes Pilgrimage to Mount Athos

August 13, 201812:14
Moldovan President Igor Dodon took some of his Socialist Party MPs on a pilgrimage to Russian monasteries on Mount Athos in Greece.
Igor Dodon (fourth from left) with colleagues, family and friends on Mount Athos. Photo: Igor Dodon/Facebook

Moldovan pro-Russian President Igor Dodon left on Monday for a new pilgrimage to Orthodox monasteries on Mount Athos in Greece which are canonically subordinate to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, months ahead of the legislative elections scheduled for the beginning of 2019.

Dodon posted a photo on his Facebook page together with Socialist MPs and leaders of nationalist movement The Patriots of Moldova, which is campaigning for a new historical identity for Moldovans.

“We are starting the pilgrimage on Mount Athos!” Dodon wrote.

In order to show his allegiance to the Russian Orthodox Church, Dodon also spent his 2017 vacation on a pilgrimage to the same place.

He returned in March this year to participate in the inauguration of an international organisation called Friends of Orthodoxy, which brought together religious and political figures from Moldova, Russia, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, the US, France and Spain.

Among them were Serbian MPs from the right-wing Dveri Party, Zoran Radojicic and Bosko Obradovic, priest Maxim Obuhov, who is one of the founders of the Russian Movement for Life, the prior of Com monastery in Montenegro and Boro Djuki, honorary consul of the Russian Federation in Montenegro.

Dodon’s latest visit to Greece comes less than a month before the World Congress of Families takes place in Chisinau.

Russian Patriarch Kirill has already confirmed he will attend the event, which is partly financed by Malofeev, who was put on the EU’s sanctions list for allegedly financing pro-Russian separatists in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The World Congress of Families seeks to promote traditional marriage, opposes abortion, and condemns anti-discrimination measures intended to protect people of all sexual orientations.

US Congressional report in January claimed that Russia is aggressively targeting countries in Central and Eastern Europe that want to join the EU and NATO.

The report said that in Moldova, high-ranking priests have “worked to stop the country’s integration with the European Union”, leading anti-gay protests and even claiming that the EU’s biometric passports are satanic because they have a 13-digit numerical code.

The Guardian newspaper has reported that Mount Athos’s Russian monasteries have allegedly been involved in gathering intelligence for Moscow. Greece recently refused to give visas for several high-ranking priests who wanted to visit the monasteries.

Read more: 

Moldova to Host Global Christian Right-Wing Congress

Russian Patriarch to Visit Moldova Ahead of Election

Dodon Pulls Moldova Closer to Russian-led Bloc