Constantinople patriarch praises Russian president, church leader.

MOSCOW, May 28 (Itar-Tass) --, The Ecumenical Patriarch of
Constantinople, Bartholomew praised Russian top state leaders and the
Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and said their effort helped
improve relations between the Orthodox churches.
Visiting a Moscow cathedral on Thursday Bartholomew, who met President
Dmitry Medvedev two days before, said the Russian president and Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin were "great Christian leaders".
"Today we are living through a new stage of relations between the
Russian and Constantinople Churches. That is a major merit of such
energetic man as His Holiness Patriarch Kirill," Bartholomew said also
praising the foreign minister of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan
Illarion.
The two church leaders led a procession of 40,000 in central Moscow to
commemorate Cyril and Methodius, the saints who brought Orthodoxy to the
Slavs in the ninth century.
"The visit of your Holiness is a significant event and, beyond all
doubt, it will help strengthen the dialogue which always linked the two
sisterly churches," Medvedev told Bartholomew.
On Thursday Bartholomew and Kirill left for St. Petersburg to pray
together in St. Isaac's Cathedral and visit the monastery on the Valaam
Island. Bartholomew will return to Istanbul on Monday.