Church cross blessing turns into a support rally for Edgar Savisaar

21.02.2011

Thousands of mainly Russian-speaking people gathered on Saturday to witness the blessing of the cross of the new Russian Orthodox Church in Lasnamäe in Tallinn, writes Äripäev.

In spite of cold weather, whole families arrived to see, touch or even kiss the cross and listen to mayor of Tallinn and Center Party chairman Edgar Savisaar and Vladimir Yakunin, president of Russian Railways, who are in the centre of a controversy regarding illegal financing of the Center Party by Russian businesses.

The security police claim that at the end of 2010, Savisaar had asked 3 million euros from Yakunin for financing Center Party’s election campaign. Yakunin reportedly agreed to pay the party 1.5 million euros including a third in cash.

According to Savisaar, he only asked Yakunin for assistance in financing the church project.

“Those who have created this scandal should think what they are doing,” Yakunin who is also chairman of the Andrei Pervozvannyi Foundation that has financed the church project, said in comment, adding that all speculations around the funding of the church were untrue.

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