This is reported by TASS with reference to the Chancellor of the Curia of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, priest Igor Kovalevsky.

"In the recent history of the Catholic Church in Russia, this is the first appointment of an ethnic Russian as a bishop," Kovalevsky said.

The new bishop is given a titular diocese (abolished diocese, used to title bishops without its own jurisdiction) of the Waters of Bizatsen.