On Thursday, Moldovan media reported that Archbishop Markell of Balti and Falesti was detained at the Chisinau airport for a lengthy security check, thereby preventing him from boarding his flight to Israel on time.
"In some sense, this is already an established pattern. Nothing surprises me after the attack on the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra [in Ukraine]. This was the sign of war against the Orthodox world, against Orthodox Russians and all the Orthodox people. And now the fight is underway, and they [the West] think that through new secular political measures they will, at first, frighten and then destroy the Orthodox civilization. But they will not succeed," Kusturica said.
He cited the creation of the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine as opposed to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has historic links to the Moscow Patriarchate, calling it an attempt to "seize control over part of the Orthodox world" and opining that "persecution might have worked out once but will not work out again."
The Orthodox Church of Moldova is a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church, which unites 70% of the residents of Moldova and its breakaway region of Transnistria. Metropolitan of Chisinau and All Moldova Vladimir (Nicolae Cantarean) has repeatedly expressed regret that the current authorities of the country avoid dialogue with the church.
Hours-long checks under the supervision of armed police officers have recently occurred at the Chisinau airport, especially targeting representatives of the opposition Pobeda (Victory) bloc and Moldovan public figures who arrived from Russia after participating in various international forums. The opposition believes that those who disagree with the actions of the Moldovan authorities are subjected to such checks.
Yevgenia Gutsul, the head of the Moldovan autonomous region of Gagauzia, was detained at the same airport on March 25. A Chisinau court arrested her for 20 days on charges of violating rules for campaign financing and document forgery. On April 9, the court placed Gutsul under home arrest for 30 days, which her supporters slammed as political pressure. Several protests have since taken place in Gagauzia.