TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY PETER MURPHY AND BALAZS WIZNER
Monk Geza Szabo 'Efrem' arrives at the Eastern Orthodox Church under construction at Heviz, 200km west of Budapest, on Pentecost Sunday on June 12, 2022. - Despite his staunch support of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill, the leader of Russia's Orthodox church, has so far escaped European Union sanctions -- thanks to the support of Hungarian leader Viktor Orban. Anxious to defend "Christian values", Orban's nationalist government has sought to strengthen ties with the Patriarch of Moscow, who last week assured Russian leader Vladimir Putin that "God put you in power". Orban has showered the church with state funds even though just 14,000 of Hungary's nearly 10 million people are Orthodox. In the spa town of Heviz in western Hungary, mass is already being celebrated in a new Russian Orthodox church even though it is not yet finished. (Photo by Peter Kohalmi / AFP)