On December 9, 2021, in Zagreb (Croatia), Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, and a delegation of the Foundation for the Support of Christian Culture and Heritage, headed by Egor Skopenko, Executive Director of the Foundation, visited the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Zagreb-Ljubljana Metropolia of the Serbian Orthodox Church, where they met with the rector of the Cathedral, Proton-Vicar Bogolyub Ostoich and the clergy of the temple. Archimandrite Daniel (Lubotina), a cleric of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Zagreb and Ljubljana, told about the history and current life of the parish. The Transfiguration Cathedral was damaged by an earthquake in 2020, in connection with which restoration work is currently being carried out in it.
Russian Russian Orthodox chapels, the Serbian Chapel of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, as well as the Chapel of the Resurrection of Christ, erected in 1928 in the Russian architectural style, in which Archpriest Nikolai Balashov performed a requiem mass for the Russian compatriots resting in the cemetery, were accompanied by the cleric of the Zagreb-Ljubljana Metropolia, Priest Mikhail Zhikich, the guests visited the Mirogoj cemetery, where they examined the graves of Russian emigrants and visited Orthodox chapels – the Serbian chapel of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, as well as the Chapel of the Resurrection of Christ, erected in 1928 in the Russian architectural style.
Archpriest Nikolai Balashov and Egor Skopenko met with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Croatia A.A. Nesterenko at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Zagreb.
The visits were attended by the rector of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, Archpriest Vitaly Tarasyev, the DECR Secretariat for Inter-Orthodox Relations A.Y. Khoshev and members of the Foundation delegation.