Father Sergius,

Thank you for your kind words. I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you are doing to preserve Orthodoxy in multiethnic and multi-confessional Kazakhstan which (as you yourself said) provides an honourable answer not in word but in deed to all those who are trying to drive a wedge between us and to play an ethnic and religious card.

Today, I met with Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu and President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev who is firmly committed to preventing any strife on these grounds and to suppress any provocations should there be any.

Your work is particularly important in a world where attempts at disturbing public peace, calm and harmony occur not only within the CIS, but an attack against Orthodoxy is unfolding on a global scale as well. I heard Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople is trying to reach this place with his “tentacles” and “claws.” This is all being done not only with direct support and funding from the United States, but also with the instigation of, at least, the current US administration. This is sad. It contradicts every international canon, ecclesiastical and secular - the UN Charter - alike.

Upholding the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan and preserving inter-confessional harmony is of great importance if we want to repel such attempts with resolution and prevent them from gaining inertia.