Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Putin makes emotional visit to Jerusalem

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Putin makes emotional visit to Jerusalem

    ANSA English Media Service
    April 29, 2005

    MIDEAST: PUTIN MAKES EMOTIONAL VISIT TO JERUSALEM

    By Alessandro Logroscino

    MOSCOW

    (ANSA) - MOSCOW, April 29 - Long minutes of solitary
    meditation in the Holy Sepulchre basilica, deep emotion at the
    Yad Vashem Museum, these are moments of President Vladimir
    Putin's visit to Jerusalem on the eve of the Orthodox Easter
    which this year is on May 1.

    Putin first met the director of the Yad Vashem Museum,
    Shevach Weiss, who accompanied him in the halls of the museum
    dedicated to the Holocaust.

    "Nobody has ever been as emotional as Putin," Weiss said.

    The people who accompanied the Russian President during is
    visit tothe Holy Land seemed just as touched.

    The trip has many surprising aspects, according to what
    Andrei Kolesnikov, the most famous journalist following the
    President's visit, wrote on the pages of opposition newspaper
    Kommersant.

    Putin decided to make his visit as soon as he arrived from
    Cairo despite the fact that it was already dark.

    The Holy Sepulchre basilica had already been closed when
    Putin arrived and was opened especially for him. Putin
    immediately stood in front of the plate on which Jesus' body had
    been laid down and prayed for ten minutes, much longer than
    expected.

    An Armenian priest led him to the hole worshipped as the one
    where Christ's cross had been fixed. Here the President again
    wanted to remain alone and knelt down.

    A priest approached him some time later to tell him that it
    was probably time to go.

    Putin followed the priest but then told him to wait, went
    back and knelt down again, loosened his tie and put a small
    crucifix, a gift from his mother which he has been wearing for
    years, in the hole.

    It took longer before Putin left the basilica, which keeps
    precious gifts from Russian tsar Alexander III, and headed for
    the residence of the Orthodox archimandrite who represents the
    Moscow Patriarchate in the Holy Land.

    This short stop preceded Putin's last visit during his stay
    in Jerusalem, a pilgrimage to the Western Wall. (ANSA).
Working...
X