Vilyuchinsk (Kamchatka Territory), September 20, 2010 - Interfax
Leaders of the Russian Pacific Fleet develop cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church.
"These days, it is unthinkable to start naval training for submarine personnel or to go out to sea without a blessing of Church representatives," the commander of the Joint Command and Forces in Russia's North East, Rear Admiral Konstantin Maklov said on Sunday in his address to Patriarch Kirill, on the pier of the 16th Pacific submarine squadron in the closed military town of Vilyuchinsk, not far from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Maklov also stated that submariners successfully interact with the local diocese, and have signed an agreement stating that the Russian Church would provide spiritual care for strategic submarine launch platform St. George the Victory-Bearer and diesel submarine St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
He reminded those present that acting Archbishop Ignaty of Petropavlovsk and Kamchatka participated for the first time in the history of Russia's submarine fleet in the passage of an atomic submarine from the North Fleet to Kamchatka, under Arctic ice.
