Before his visit to Alaska, President Vladimir Putin met with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. As he later told Archbishop Alexei of Sitka and Alaska, the Patriarch had spoken warmly about the origins of the Orthodox Church in America, recalling his own pastoral visits there and expressing particular affection for Archbishop Alexei.
After nearly three hours of talks at the Elmendorf–Richardson Air Force Base near Anchorage, Alaska, the two leaders, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, held a joint press conference.
Before his departure from Alaska, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a cemetery and laid flowers at the graves of Soviet pilots who lost their lives during World War II.
The head of the Russian state also spoke with a hierarch of the Orthodox Church in America, Archbishop of Sitka and Alaska Alexei. The President of Russia presented the hierarch with an icon of St. Herman of Alaska, the patron saint of America, and an icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.
“I would like to convey to you the very best wishes from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. We met with him before my trip here. He himself told me about how the Orthodox Church began here. He told me that he too had visited, and had served here. He spoke of you with great warmth,” said Putin.
Archbishop Alexei thanked the President of Russia and also presented him with an icon of St. Herman of Alaska, which had been written on Mount Athos. “This is an icon that was given to me as a gift when I was consecrated a bishop on Mount Athos. For four years it has been in my prayer corner, and I would like to give it to you in order to express the gratitude of the native people of Alaska to the leader of the country that once sent missionaries here. Because Russia gave us what we value most, what is most precious — the Orthodox faith,” said the hierarch.
Source: patriarchia.ru
