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German chancellor and wife tour Moscow sites

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January 8, 2001 

MOSCOW-- (UNB/AP) - President Vladimir Putin and his wife took German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his wife sightseeing Sunday on the second and final day of their visit to Russia.

The two couples toured Moscow's Kolomenskoye museum estate and visited the Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius monastery in Sergiev Posad, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of Moscow.

At Kolomenskoye, the German and Russian leaders took their wives, Doris and Lyudmila, for a ride around the snow-covered estate on a troika, the traditional Russian sled pulled by three horses.

In Sergiev Posad, they were welcomed by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, who hosted a Christmas Day reception at the monastery, which dates from the 14th century and is regarded as the spiritual center of Russian Orthodoxy.

Schroeder and his wife arrived in Moscow Saturday to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas on a two-day visit that was billed as a private.

The couples attended a ballet at the Bolshoi Theater Saturday night and later went to an elaborate Christmas Eve Mass at Christ the Savior Cathedral, a recently completed reconstruction of an enormous church destroyed under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, where scores of gold-robed priests led by Alexy II held candles and chanted.

The Russian Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar and celebrates Christmas on Jan. 7.

Putin and Schroeder delighted a Christmas Eve crowd on Red Square, shaking hands and waving as they walked across the vast plaza en route from the Kremlin to the Bolshoi Theater.

In brief remarks to reporters while crossing the square, Putin dismissed recent reports that Russia may have sent nuclear weapons to the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad and said he and Schroeder had discussed Russia-European Union relations. Details of their talks were not released.

Since their first meeting, when Putin visited Berlin last June, the two leaders have developed friendly ties, informally addressing each other in German. Putin, a former KGB agent who served in East Germany during the Soviet era, speaks fluent German.