Reuters reported that for at least a year and a half Russia had been organizing pilgrimage trips for priests of the Moldovan Orthodox Church, which is linked to the Moscow Patriarchate. According to the investigation, after these visits some participants received money and joined an information campaign against the European Union and LGBT people ahead of Moldova’s parliamentary elections scheduled for September 28.
As an example, Reuters cites priest Mikhail Biku. In September 2024, he traveled to Russia with a group of pilgrims: the host side paid for a week-long tour of Russian Orthodox holy sites and gave each participant vouchers worth 10,000 rubles to spend in church shops. The group also attended lectures stressing the “shared faith” and centuries-old ties between Russia and Moldova, while portraying the West as “morally decayed.”
Before departure, Biku said, the priests were handed debit cards from Promsvyazbank. The day after he returned to Moldova, $1,200 was deposited onto his card, roughly twice the country’s average monthly salary. Reuters says several hundred people, mostly priests, took part in similar trips between June and October 2024.
After returning, many of them, according to the agency, launched Telegram channels in the name of their parishes. The channels carried messages against EU integration, in favor of “traditional values,” and critical of LGBT people. Reuters counted at least 86 such channels; most regularly repost material from the anonymous channel Sare şi Lumiña, which published more than 600 posts from May through August 2025. Reuters estimated that in the past month its posts were seen by more than 27,000 people.
Reuters says the trips were organized by people linked to United Russia and the People’s Front, including Artyom Starostin, Alexander Ralnikov and Sergei Lazarev. Archbishop Markel told Reuters the trips had no political purpose and that the cards were meant only for purchasing church goods.
“Russia is using the church, the most trusted institution, to sow distrust and push its agenda,” Moldovan presidential adviser Stanislav Secrieru told Reuters, calling Moscow’s interference in the campaign its most immoral element.