Alignments of Orthodoxy in Moldova and the Axiocontext of Russia’s War against Ukraine

A comprehensive analysis of the dominant trends shaping the contemporary religious situation in the Republic of Moldova, with particular attention to the geopolitical foundations and ramifications of the activities of religious hierarchs. The author examines the state of Orthodoxy in Moldova, to which the overwhelming majority of the country’s citizens belong. Particular attention is paid to its division between two alternative jurisdictional identities: one within the Romanian Orthodox Church and the other within the Russian Orthodox Church. The article draws on a substantial body of relevant statistical, sociological, and factual evidence. The author subjects a wide range of recent ecclesiastical documents, statements by religious leaders, and declarations issued by national and intergovernmental authorities to scholarly analysis. The study acquires particular semantic density through its reflection on the role of the Orthodox Church of Moldova and its leaders in the ideological support for Russia’s war against Ukraine provided by the Russian Orthodox Church. The research is interdisciplinary, combining a religious studies perspective with historical, sociological, political-science, and axiological approaches.