Moldova President Makes Pilgrimage to Mount Athos

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 Moscow's Patriarchy, 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....