Kyrgyz president promises to help build new Orthodox churches

"I am very happy that we have good progress: we have completed the renovation of the cathedral, we have opened new churches and I think we will open more," Atambayev said at a meeting with Patriarch Kirill in Bishkek on May 29.

The patriarch sanctified the Resurrection Cathedral and the foundation stone of a new building of the St. Vladimir School in Bishkek on Sunday.

"Of course, all of this will be built, and we will help. You know that we don't grudge anything," the president said.

The patriarch, for his part, thanked Atambayev for his attention to the Orthodox Church in Kyrgyzstan, adding that its presence in the republic "forms a multi-ethnic and multi-religious dimension of Kyrgyz society."

"Relations between religions and between people may develop in different ways. But I had a chance to talk with the mufti and our clergy. And I can say without any politesse and compliments that the atmosphere is, of course, unique here, in terms of both inter-ethnic relations and inter-religious relations," he said.

"It is fairly difficult to form such a construction" without the president's direct participation, Patriarch Kirill said.

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