Moldovan authorities are bullying the Orthodox Church, RT and Rossiya Segodnya (Sputnik's parent company) editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said on Friday, commenting on the detention of Archbishop Markell of Balti and Falesti.
"Moldovan authorities have come down to bulling the Orthodox Church: for no reason they detained Archbishop Markell, who had to fly to Jerusalem for the Holy Fire. At the airport they seized his passport and searched him, while his plane took off leaving him behind," Simonyan said on Telegram.
Simonyan said Archbishop Markell's case was reminiscent of the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church, "with the same old guidelines," involving chapel raids and arrests of clergymen.
The Orthodox Church of Moldova is a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church that 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.