Russian Patriarch Alexy II Visits Estonia
Published:
26 September 2003 y., Friday
Russian Patriarch Alexy II arrived Thursday for a five-day visit, his first since a bitter dispute over the status of the faithful in the republic threatened to split Orthodox Christians worldwide.
Estonians also see Alexy's visit as a signal from the Kremlin that it wants to improve relations. The nation of 1.4 million people has sparred with Moscow over several issues since it regained independence amid the 1991 Soviet collapse.
"It's not just any old trip. It is, I would say, a kind of step toward the normalization of Estonian-Russian relations," said Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Estonian parliament's foreign relations committee.
Alexy is uniquely positioned to carry a goodwill message, and not only because he's viewed as an emissary of the Russian government. He was born in Estonia in 1929, went to school here and reportedly speaks fluent Estonian.
Šaltinis:
AP
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė participated in the festive events dedicated to Poland's Independence Day in Warsaw, on the invitation of President Bronislaw Komorowski of Poland.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė had a working meeting with the Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radičová.
more »
On Monday, November 8, President Dalia Grybauskaitė, together with other female heads of state and government, will meet in New York to discuss preparations for the high-level meeting of women leaders of the world to be held by the Community of Democracies in Vilnius in the summer of next year.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė met with ambassadors of the European Union Member States who reside in Lithuania.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė congratulated Mrs. Dilma Rousseff on her victory in the presidential election of the Federative Republic of Brazil.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė received German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle, who is currently visiting Lithuania.
more »
President Dalia Grybauskaitė extended condolences to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the loss of life and damage caused by the tsunami and volcano eruption in Indonesia.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė is attending a two-day meeting of the European Council in Brussels.
more »
Having finished the working visit in China, President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė left for Brussels to attend the European Summit.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė met with Vice President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China in Beijing.
more »