His Holiness Patriarch Alexy meets with the Ukrainian Prime Minister Yu. Yekhnaurov

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia met with the Ukrainian Prime Minister Yu. Yekhnaurov on September 30, 2005, at the patriarchal and synodal residence in St. Daniel’s Monastery in Moscow. Participating in the meeting were also Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, Ukrainian Ambassador to Russia N. Beloblotsky and I. Bondarchuk, director of the Ukrainian State Department for Religion.

The primate of the Russian Orthodox Church congratulated Yu. Yekhnaurov on this high and important appointment and wished him God’s help in his work.

Among the subjects discussed was the need for developing good relations between the fraternal Russian and Ukrainian nations. ‘We are united by the Orthodox faith’, His Holiness Alexy said’, for we all have come from the common Kievan baptismal font’.

They also discussed problems concerning the religious situation in Ukraine.