Yeltsin, Patriarch Vow To Cooperate
by ANNA DOLGOV , Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW (AP) -- President Boris Yeltsin and the leader of Russia's Orthodox Church kissed at a religious service Wednesday and pledged to mend their longtime alliance, frayed by a divisive dispute over competing religions.

Yeltsin and Patriarch Alexy II, standing together near the newly built Chapel of St. Boris and Gleb, vowed to strengthen their cooperation. ``No obstacles shall separate us,'' Yeltsin said ``because we know the role and the importance of the restoration in Russia of Orthodox Christianity and the Orthodox Church.'' The fortunes of the state and the church, intertwined since the 1991 Soviet collapse, were put to a test last month when Yeltsin rejected a church-backed bill to restrict ``non-traditional'' religions -- including Roman Catholicism and evangelical Christianity.

But the president and the patriarch said Wednesday they would set up a commission to smooth out sticking points in the bill, which won overwhelming support in Parliament, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies reported. ``I am satisfied that the president has moved to meet the aspirations of tens of millions of our church's faithful,'' Alexy said.

The Orthodox Church claims 80 million followers -- more than half of Russia's population -- and Alexy had warned that believers would protest if Yeltsin does not ultimately allow the religion bill to become law. The bill -- which the patriarch says is needed to protect Russians from ``destructive pseudo-religious cults and foreign false-missionaries'' -- gives special standing to Alexy's church and pledges ``respect'' to Islam, Buddhism and Judaism. But other religions would have to register with the government in order to own property or conduct public worship, and could not do so until they had been in the country for 15 years.

The U.S. Senate threatened to cut off aid to Russia if the bill became law. The Vatican also strongly opposed it. The state-church alliance has been important for both sides. Alexy was an open supporter of Yeltsin's presidential campaign in 1990 and of his re-election bid last summer, when the patriarch pointedly reminded believers of Soviet-era repressions and urged them to ``make the right choice'' between Yeltsin and his Communist opponent. For his part, the Russian president has given the church high visibility, attending services at Christmas and Easter, and incorporating Alexy in many ostensibly secular Kremlin ceremonies such as treaty signings. ``It is not by accident that the second baptism of our people goes hand-in-hand with the restoration of Russia, with its gradual transfer from troubled times to the creation of civic peace,'' Alexy said.

(picture shows Yeltsin's wife, Naina, alongside the president; from ITAR-TASS)

Yeltsin's wife, Naina, Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, security chief Ivan Rybkin and Parliament leaders also attended Wednesday's service, a consecration ceremony for a chapel, signaling Russian officials' eagerness to demonstrate their alliance with the church.

The small domed chapel on Arbat Square in downtown Moscow, a few dozen yards from Russia's Defense Ministry, was destroyed under Joseph Stalin in the 1930s and rebuilt this year. It is dedicated to Boris and Gleb, two 11th-century Russian princes who became the nation's first martyr saints.