00:00Well, let's cross live now to Lorenzo Berti, an Italian activist and president of the Vento dell'Est association.
00:06Very good to have you with us.
00:09Well, first off, let's start with the latest.
00:11So we've got Archbishop Markle saying he's gone again to Chisinau Airport.
00:16He's going to try and fly out to Israel again.
00:19Given that obviously media outlets have picked up on what's happening,
00:24do you think that the Moldovan authorities will allow him to visit Jerusalem?
00:30Good evening.
00:32What happened to Archbishop Markle is very serious and scandalous.
00:39The attack on religion is one of the worst crimes that a political regime can commit.
00:47Moreover, Orthodox Christianity is the religion of the majority of Moldovan citizens.
00:53And this attack to Orkut's church is an attack on all of them.
00:58Unfortunately, since it's ruled by Soros, Becker, Dejan, Maya Sandu, Moldova has been following the same path as Kiev regime,
01:08with electoral fraud, arrest of opponents, linguistic and religious persecution.
01:15I really hope that the Archbishop would allow to travel to Jerusalem because this is the most important event for the Orthodox Christian world.
01:36I want to ask you, we've been trying to get reaction from guests, whether they see any parallels between what's happening in Moldovan now
01:47and what we're seeing in Ukraine with Kiev authorities suppressing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church there.
01:57We've all seen the images of priests being arrested, of pretty violent scenes inside places of worship.
02:06Do you see any echoes there?
02:08Yes, it's a very similar situation, unfortunately.
02:13I know very well the situation of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine because with my association, Ben to the Last,
02:21we often reported the issue of the persecution of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
02:27In Europe, there is a nation where Christians are regularly persecuted, and not by Islamic Jihad,
02:36but by a government that is openly supported by the European Union and the United States.
02:43This is the post-Euromaidan Ukraine, where the parliament ban the activity of the canonic Ukraine Orthodox Church,
02:52and the churches are seized by Kiev authorities, and the priests are arrested without reason.
03:04Recently, the United Nations Commissioners for Human Rights, in an official statement on the situation in Ukraine,
03:12declared that the ban imposed on Orthodox Church is not compliant with international law.
03:19But despite this, no one in Italy, neither the Vatican, talks about this,
03:26because it's not compliant with the narrative of Ukraine as a model of democracy,
03:33that propaganda wants to sell to the public.
03:38Regarding where Brussels stands on this, obviously we have Moldova,
03:44a member of the European community, let us say.
03:50Do you think that we are going to have anyone in Brussels coming out and saying,
03:56look, these scenes don't look right to us, we need to ensure the values, of course,
04:01that we travel around the world preaching about, religious freedom?
04:05I don't think no one in Brussels will say something about this,
04:12because Brussels is the reason why the Moldovan government act in this way.
04:22Let's remember that less than a month ago,
04:26Eugenio Gutzul, the leader of the autonomous region of Tlagozia,
04:30a region very close to the Russian world, was arrested at Kisinau Airport.
04:37So the persecution is not only against the Church,
04:42it's against also all the political leaders
04:47that are not agreeing with the line of the actual government ruled by Maya Sandu.
04:56Let's remember also that the referendum about the path to the Moldovan entry in the European Union
05:12was really still the vote
05:18with the support of Moldovan voters
05:26that live outside Moldova in the European Union.
05:31Well, it's certainly very troubling scenes.
05:34And of course, the most interesting thing will be
05:36whether actually we'll have the opposite effect,
05:38whether worshippers will look at these scenes and say,
05:42no, I'm even more devoted, of course, to the Church
05:45and to this particular clergy member as a result.
05:50Lorenzo Berti, Italian activist and president of the Vento del Este Association,
05:54thank you very much for your time.
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