The Visit

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.