You're reading: The Moscow Times: Russian Patriarch won’t claim rebel regions

TheRussian Orthodox Church will not claim clerical authority over Georgia's breakaway regions ofAbkhazia andSouth Ossetia, Russian andGeorgian church leaders said. Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill andGeorgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilia met inUkraine forthe first time since thefive-day war in2008 over theMoscow-backed breakaway region ofSouth Ossetia. Read full story here.