The message was read out by Mr. M. Belousov, deputy head of the Presidential Administration for Domestic Policy.

On April 26, 2017, the Christian Inter-confessional Consultative Committee (CICC) has opened its 5th plenary session at the Constantin Palace in St. Petersburg under the theme ‘Faith and the Overcoming of Civil Confrontation: Lessons of the Century’.

The CIS and Baltic Christian Inter-confessional Committee (CIAC) held a working meeting on March 4, 2011, at the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, to discuss cooperation between religious and public organizations in the population policy.

On 29 June 2010 the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches Rev. Dr. Olaf Fykse Tveit was received by the Co-Chairs of the Christian Interconfessional Advisory Committee. The CIAC Co-Chairs have told the WCC General Secretary about the work of Christian Interconfessional Advisory Committee, the current situation with regard to inter-Christian dialog in the CIS-Countries and Baltics, and described the most important trends in the religious life of the Russian Federation.

On 28 June 2010 Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, received the Rev. Dr. Olaf Fykse Tveit, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, currently on an official visit to Moscow. His Holiness remarked that the World Council of Churches was experiencing a protracted crisis caused by the contradiction between the declared aspiration to Christian unity and the deepening of differences among Christians on certain doctrinal issues, such as anthropology and morality.

The General Secretary of the World Council of Church Dr. Olaf Fykse Tveit began his official visit to Moscow on 271 June 2010. He is accompanied by the WCC deputy general secretary Jorge Lemopoulos (Patriarchate of Constantinople), and Prof. Dr. Dagmar Heller of the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey.

The World Summit of Religious Leaders took place in Winnipeg on 21-23 June 2010 on the initiative of religious communities in Canada. The Summit was timed to the G8 Summit due to be held in Muscoca, Canada, on 25-27 June 2010. Taking part in the summit were over seventy religious leaders from twenty-four countries.

On 21 May, the State Duma of the Russian Federation passed in its final reading a law establishing a new holiday: a day commemorating the christening of Russia. It is to take place on 28 July, the date sited for the baptism of Prince Vladimir in 988.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, met with the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper, at the Council’s library in the Vatican.

At the 33rd Congress of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB) in Moscow on 24 March, Pastor Alexei Vasilevich Smirnov was elected to succeed Yuri Sipko as President.