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On 29 January 2020, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), met with Montenegro Ambassador to Russia H. E. Ramiz Basic, who is completing his tenure as head of the Montenegro diplomatic mission in Moscow.

Metropolitan Hilarion welcomed the high-ranking diplomat to the synodal department responsible for the external relations of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The DECR chairman expressed deep concern for the church situation in Montenegro caused by the adoption of a law “On Freedom of Faith and Beliefs and the Legal Status of Religious Communities”. The archpastor informed the ambassador about the stand taken on it by the Supreme Authority of the Russian Church expressed in “The Statement on the Situation in Montenegro” adopted by the Holy Synod on 9 July 2019, and in the Patriarchal and Synodal message “On the Situation in Montenegro” adopted by the Holy Synod on December 30, 2019.

In his turn, the head of the Montenegro diplomatic mission set forth his vision of the situation from the pointed of view of the Montenegro authorities.

Participating in the meeting were also Archpriest Sergiy Zvonarev, DECR secretary for the far abroad countries, and Ms. Borjanka Simisevic, a counsellor of the Montenegro embassy in Moscow.

DECR Communication Service