Russian President Putin wishes Benedict XVI a happy birthday

Apr 16, 2007, 16:31 GMT

Moscow - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II sent birthday greetings to Pope Benedict XVI Monday as the head of the Catholic Church turned 80.

Russia's political and spiritual leaders both emphasized similarities between Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church under Benedict.

Putin's letter touched on his visit to the Vatican City last month: '(Our conversation) confirmed that Russia and the Holy See have close views on a wide spectrum of international questions and contemporary problems that stand before humanity today.'

The Russian leader, who was formerly a KGB agent in communist East Germany, spoke to the pope in fluent German at the time. Both men have sharply criticized the Iraq War.

Centuries-long disputes between the two churches have prevented Benedict, as they did John Paul II before him, from visiting Russia.

The Russian Orthodox Church originally answered to the Constantinople Patriarch, which split with the Roman Catholic Church in the 11th century. Since the fifteenth century, Russia's church has been independent of Constantinople.

The Russian church has traditionally resisted closer relations with the Catholic Church on concern of Catholic proselytizing.

The Russian patriarch, however, praised the churches' shared opinions on contemporary and moral issues in his birthday wishes.

'I am deeply convinced (that common ground) should become a strong foundation for the establishment of good relations and the development of mutually beneficial cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church,' Alexy II wrote.