"Does this mean there are already ties with Russia, or not yet?": Vatican Secretary Plans Visit to Russia

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, is preparing for a visit to Russia. Bishop Nikolai Dubinin, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, confirmed the upcoming official visit. TASS reports this on .

According to the information received, the diplomatic mission will take place from August 25 to 28. This visit continues a series of contacts between the Vatican and the Russian leadership. Archbishop Gallagher had previously visited Moscow in November 2021, where he held meetings with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

It is important to note that dialogue between the two sides is maintained at a high level. In particular, a telephone conversation took place in April 2025 between Sergey Lavrov and Paul Gallagher. During that conversation, representatives of both sides discussed the Ukrainian issue in the context of prospects for resolving the conflict through diplomatic dialogue between Russia and the United States.

As a reminder, Viktor Yelensky, head of Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, previously stated that the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church must officially sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.