A church award conferred on Ingushetian president

Bishop Feofan of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz met with the Ingushetian President Mural Zyazikov on September 22, 2005, in Magas.

In the course of their meeting, Bishop Feofan presented M. Zyazikov with a high award of the Russian Orthodox Church – the Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh for ‘his consolidating work in the Caucasus and his enormous efforts to establish peace and good-neighbourly relations in the region’.

Bishop Feofan noted that Murat Zyazikov did much so that peace could come to that troubled North Caucasian region and people could return to normal life. ‘It is my conviction that there is nothing more important than its people. Murat Zyazikov, as Ingushetian president, as a Russian citizen and simply as a man has given considerable support to the faithful and to religious organizations’, Bishop Feofan underscored.

In his response, Murat Zyazikov thanked His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia for the award and underlined that he considered it to be an award to the multi-ethnic people of Ingushetia for their efforts to live in peace and accord with all the peoples in great Russia.

‘Today the leadership of the country is carrying out an important work to consolidate the Russian statehood and to ensure stability in the social, political and socio-economic situation. An important role in this work is played by religious leaders of the peoples in Russia, especially the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church’, the Ingushetian president emphasised.