A rchive Date
[ 01-06-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Russia ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/05/30/99631-ap.html
Putin shows off restored St. Petersburg treasures
By STEVE GUTTERMAN
Sat, May 31, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) - Six decades after Nazi troops dismantled the extravagantly jewelled Amber Room from a former czarist palace and carted it away, the leaders of Russia and Germany saluted St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary by opening the recreated chamber Saturday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder led fellow leaders from three continents through the glittering room at the ornate Catherine Palace, lined with resplendent amber panels. The room was recrafted with funding from the German natural gas company, Ruhrgas.
"Today we have visited the legendary Amber Room, which was brought back to life through the mutual effort of Russian craftsmen with the support of German partners," Putin said in a banquet address in a nearby hall, where an orchestra had welcomed guests with a Tchaikovsky waltz.
"This masterpiece has become a symbol of the new relations in the united family of our greater Europe."
The chamber's opening came amid three days of summits and speeches set against the newly restored historic treasures of St. Petersburg, a symbol of imperial Russia's powerful place in Europe and the world.
"It is precisely here, in St. Petersburg, that it becomes clear that Russia, both historically and culturally, is an inseparable part of Europe," Putin told his luncheon guests.
He then raised a toast to "European solidarity, to the good fortune of the peoples of all our countries, and to the health of all people present."
Earlier in the day, Putin hosted leaders of current and future European Union states at the Konstantin Palace, another czarist-era structure that was restored from a dilapidated state. Putin, a St. Petersburg native who is using the city's tri-centennial celebrations to equate his Russia with the Russia of Peter the Great - the czar who founded the city in 1703 as a window on the West - showed EU leaders a film about the palace's $300-million US restoration.
At the summit, he stressed his view of Russia as a full-fledged European country by pushing his ambitious call for visa-free travel between Russia and the EU, unthinkable when the Iron Curtain divided Europe 15 years ago.
St. Petersburg declined over the decades of rule by the communists, who took over Russia in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and moved the capital back to Moscow, the seat of Russian power before Peter. The tri-centennial has occasioned a huge effort to buff up the city's architectural treasures, but much of its infrastructure is obsolete and it faces severe shortages of housing and investment in public services.
Putin was set to make a speech on the Neva waterfront on Saturday evening before taking leaders to Peterhof, another grandiose palace outside the city, for dinner and a concert mixing music with a water show. Peterhof is famous for its cascade of fountains. Putin is to meet Sunday with U.S. President George W. Bush for a brief summit, during which they are expected to try to invigorate relations between the two countries after sharp disagreement over the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
At a news conference Saturday, Putin expressed gratitude to Bush for what he said were compromises on the latest UN resolution on Iraq, saying it "essentially put the problem under the aegis of the United Nations." Russia has pushed hard for a central UN role in postwar Iraq.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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