VLADIMIR PUTIN ARRIVED IN ROME

June 5, 2000 - http://www.allnews.ru/english/2000/06/05/rome/ - Vladimir Putin arrived in Rome on his first official foreign visit as President of Russia. According to the report of the RIA News Agency, after Putin was greeted by Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini at the Fiumicino airport, the Russian delegation headed to the Chigi Government Palace. There Putin immediately began talks with Italian Prime Minister Giuliano D'Amato.

Afterwards, Putin plans to meet with the Pope. It is expected that the Russian President will present the Pope with an invitation to visit Russia, as was already done by former presidents Gorbachev and Yeltsin. The possibility of the results of this meeting becoming sensational is not excluded, a correspondent of RTR television reported from Rome. The Russian delegation includes Vice-Premier Alexei Kudrin, Foreign Affairs Minister Igor Ivanov, Minister of Industry Alexander Dondukov, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, and heads of the leading financial and industrial structures in Russia.

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