Moscow will fund the reconstruction of the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade. Over $5 million will be allocated for it. Vladimir Putin announced this while visiting the cathedral. Serbs consider this temple to be their national shrine. Its construction began over a century ago but was suspended because of the wars. Now, restoration works are being conducted there. They plan to complete them this autumn to mark the 800th anniversary of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Russians help decorate the church.
The project's author, the artist Nikolai Mukhin, offered the presidents of Russia and Serbia to symbolically finish one of the mosaics.
Nikolai Mukhin: Bless us to finish this mosaic. Mr. Putin, you can finish it in a simple way: we accept you, Aleksandar Vučić, and his Holiness to the team of mosaicists.
Vladimir Putin: Like this?
- Yes. Press harder for it to stay there forever. That's it. Okay. Yes, you can do it like this. That's it. The Russian flag is almost ready.
- Exactly. Are there the Serbian and Russian flags?
- Yes.
Speaking of the award given by Vladimir Putin to Aleksandar Vučić, it's a special order for the Serbian president's family. The eyes of the president's father, Anđelko Vučić, filled with tears when he watched that moment on TV. It turned out that the father and grandfather of the current president wanted to go to Russia before his death but he failed to do it because he was killed in WWII. The administration of the Serbian president also stressed that Aleksandar Vučić is the first Serb in 105 years to be awarded a Russian order.
Finishing his visit to Belgrade, Vladimir Putin held a short meeting with the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik. He was elected to this post not long ago. The Russian president congratulated him on winning the elections. At the meeting, they discussed the possible participation by Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Turkstream project, among other things.
Vladimir Putin also talked to Emir Kusturica. The world-famous film director and musician, along with other cultural figures, attended a reception to welcome Vladimir Putin. He told Putin about his plans to organize concerts in Russia this spring. He also talked about politics a bit.
Emir Kusturica, filmmaker: "I shared with President Putin my idea of Serbia being independent and united as much as possible. I mostly focused on the situation in the Republic of Serbia where the local population has pressure put on them by politicians and can't always freely build relations with Russia, which is necessary, in my opinion.
