Metropolis of Bessarabia

The move, however, has been criticised as discriminatory, favouring one religious community over myriad others that were snuffed out under Soviet rule and had their properties seized by the state.

Currently, Moldovan law does not provide for restitution of property claimed by legal entities, only private individuals.

Moldova will hand over the building of the former Theological Seminary in Chisinau to the Metropolis of Bessarabia, which is linked to the Romanian Orthodox Church, if a draft law registered by several deputies of the ruling Action and Solidarity Party, PAS, is adopted.

Russian Patriarch Kirill presented President Igor Dodon with a Russian religious order on Wednesday on the first day of the Moldovan leader's official visit to Moscow.

"His Holiness gave me the Order of St. Sergius de Radonezh, in the second degree, for the active support shown for the public initiatives of the Orthodox Church in Moldova," Dodon wrote on Facebook.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday awarding the head of the Moldovan Church, Metropolitan Vladimir, Russia's Order of Friendship.

Romania says it will issue 14 working and diplomatic passports to clergy of the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia, which is canonically subordinate to the Romanian Orthodox Church.

The Orthodox Church in the former Soviet republic is split between the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia and the Metropolitan Church of Moldova, which is subordinate to the Moscow Partriarchate.