Greek Orthodox hierarch visits Baikonur Cosmodrome

Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogaia and Laureotiki is on a visit to Russia with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and at the invitation of the “PONTOS” International Union of Greek Pubic Associations of the CID countries. The hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Church is accompanied by archpriest Grigoriy Pigalov, rector of the Church of the Most Holy Mother of God near Athens.

On 16 June 2010, the guests from Greece visited the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and saw the launch of the “Soyuz TMA-19” spaceship with an international crew led by a Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin (Grammatikopoulos), a Greek by birth.