Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Patriarch Kirill: Thank you for your attention. We have just served the Divine Liturgy.  This year 300 bishops are involved. Four years ago I was elected by 200 bishops, so you can see that our church has grown by one third over this time. This is not artificial growth in our ‘administration’ as they call it today, this is the growth of our eparchy. Our Church has 3,000 more parishes this year.

Dmitry Medvedev: Has the congregation grown along with the increase in the number of bishops?

Patriarch Kirill: Of course.

Dmitry Medvedev: It’s an objective processes.

Patriarch Kirill: That's why I was very happy to look at the faces of the younger generation of the episcopate. They are educated people, predominantly with higher secular and religious education, who have vast work experience. We do not choose candidates from Moscow, but those who can travel through the tundra and taiga.

Dmitry Medvedev: This is very important, as our eparchies, just like our towns and villages, are located in remote places.

Patriarch Kirill: Yes, you are right.

Dmitry Medvedev: Your Holiness, I again congratulate you on the anniversary of your enthronement and I wish you strong heath and moral and physical fortitude. The role of the Patriarch is very complex, and I hope everything will go well. I very much hope that the special relations which we currently have between the Russian Orthodox Church, the state and society will grow stronger for the benefit of our Motherland.

Patriarch Kirill: Thank you, Mr Medvedev.

Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you.

* * *

The meeting between the Prime Minister and the Patriarch followed the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.