It is unknown yet, how and whom Vladimir Putin will thank for the Church of St. Nicholas.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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How Much Is the Church
// Vladimir Putin ended his visit to Italy by going to church
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday in Bari carried on the talks with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi which began in Rome. The negotiations ended by visiting together the Church of St. Nicholas, recently returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. We shall see how much it cost Putin to return the church.
Vladimir Putin spent a few hours in the Italian city of Bari, attending the signing of several agreements. During a press conference before the signing ceremony, Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency head Sergei Kirienko complained that Iran has not paid for works at Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant for two months already, and even insists that it did pay. Thus, the plant’s phasing in is now postponed for precisely two months.
Renova Group head Viktor Vekselberg announced that the deal of Rusal-SUAL merger will be closed in a week. Usually, the participants of such deals speak about them a week after closing them, and not a week before.
Vladimir Putin and Romano Prodi appeared at the press conference quite suddenly. Prodi began the conference by saying that he discussed “freedom of press, human rights, freedom of an individual in any country” with the Russian president.
“Paying respect to the sovereignty of every country, we believe that no one should be left without attention when human rights are being violated,” said Prodi. Apparently, Putin, if asked, would have agreed with the speaker, willingly giving some examples of human rights violation in Italy.
“There is no EU’s energy dependency on Russia. There is Russia-EU interdependence. The latter depends on the access to Europe’s and to Russia’s markets. Thus, the agreement between Gazprom and ENI Group might become the model for EU countries,” said the Italian prime minister.
However, Prodi said nothing about why Gazprom and ENI did not sign in Bari any agreements related to the matter, although many experts expected them to do so.
Besides, Prodi expressed approval for the idea of Italian companies’ participation in creating the new Russian regional aircraft Sukhoi SuperJet-100.
“It is our last chance to become the protagonists of the civil aviation market,” he pronounced the utterance which obviously was not spontaneous (and, apparently, was not his own). “After it, there will be no more unoccupied markets.”
Finally, the prime minister touched upon a subject quite painful for Bari: “The decision to hand over the Church of St. Nicholas to the Russian Orthodox Church is a generous gift from the city’s municipal authorities.”
The church was the cause of a longstanding litigation between many countries and organizations. Bari’s city authorities had considered it as their own, before they turned it over to its former owner, the Russian Orthodox Church.
“Thank you for coordinating conditions related to returning the Orthodox church of the city of Bari to the Russian Orthodox Church,” -- Putin began his speech with a statement whose sense was drastically different from Prodi’s rendering of the event.
Then some apprehensions of the Russian delegation came true: a correspondent of ANSA agency asked Prodi whether the latter will give political asylum to former Healthcare Minister of Chechnya Umar Khanbiev, who is now in Italy.
The ANSA journalist has actually let his prime minister down. Perhaps, the correspondent was not yet over Silvio Berlusconi’s theatrical exit from the political scene. Anyway, that’s what they call free journalism, apparently.
“We did not touch upon the subject which you mentioned,” replied Prodi coolly, not willing even to repeat the question in any form. “Because I know nothing about the matter.”
Yet, the journalist did not want to know whether Prodi touched upon the subject or not. What he asked was whether Chechen former healthcare minister will get political asylum or not. Anyway, the journalist seemed completely satisfied with Prodi’s answer.
This couldn’t be said about President Putin. He too decided to answer the question, although it wasn’t addressed to him.
“I beg your pardon, but the question was not for me...” he shrugged his shoulders. “Yet, what concerns Chechnya, all interior democratic procedures are completed there...The parliament has been elected, the prosecutor’s office, the bar, and courts have been formed; all political forces are represented in the parliament, -- even those who fought against federal authorities; there is also Chechnya’s former minister of defense there...”
Putin’s traditional narration about the unprecedented blossom of democracy in Chechnya could be going on and on, but the Russian president ended it suddenly: “So, I believe, there will be place for Umar Khanbiev in Russia, if he chooses to return to peaceful life.”
Thus, Putin hinted that in former Chechen minister’s head there still goes on the war which finished in Chechnya long ago. Yet, that is not the most surprising thing. Just a couple of years ago, a question of that kind would definitely provoke a very sharp response. Now Putin talks to foreign journalists about Chechnya in a different manner. Apparently, he really calmed down about it.
Another Italian journalist asked the Russian president why ENI and Gazprom had not signed in Bari the agreement on exchanging shares. Putin expressed approval of the cooperation between these two organizations.
“If ENI and Gazprom expand their activities, we will approve of it,” he said. “These companies put into life the principles of the Energy Charter Treaty. We intend to cooperate with other European countries in the same way.”
Apparently, Vladimir Putin wants to make Italy the role model for the entire EU. Unfortunately, it is not what the EU wants.
After the press conference, Putin and Prodi went to see the Church of St. Nicholas. Crowds of local Italians gathered to watch the event. They welcomed the politicians with cheerful whistling and applauding. The counterparts said a few words. Putin delicately insisted that the church is simply returning to its lawful owner, while Prodi indirectly confirmed the idea by saying he hopes that his other agreements with Putin reached in Rome and Bari will now be carried out as well.
Thus, we shall find out later what it cost to Vladimir Putin to return the Church of St. Nicholas to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Andrei Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 15, 2007
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