Moscow, August 18, 2014
Earlier president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin proposed to restore within the Moscow Kremlin two monasteries and one church that until 1930 had been situated on the site of the building 14 of the Kremlin. According to him, such a plan can be implemented only after approval by the public and by UNESCO, reports the Kommersant newspaper with the reference to RIA-Novosti.
“The proposed project, which, according to the Russian president Putin, is still ‘just an idea, a proposal’, is a large-scale one and it considerably surpasses the actions that were coordinated with UNESCO before. And the organization’s requirements are very, very strict,” said Mrs. Mitrofanova.
At the same time, she insists that we must not disregard “the deep symbolism of the proposed project for our country, which is standing in the new phase of its historical development, its perception of the world”. “Hence, the degree of responsibility for the final decision regarding the beginning of the reconstruction on the territory, I would say, of the central Russian cultural and historical monument is of major state importance,” Eleonora Mitrofanova added.
She earlier informed that Russia was to prepare a detailed experts’ report on the influence that the future construction would have on the universal value of the Kremlin. “Outstanding universal value” is the main criterion which is taken into account at the inclusion of one or another object into the UNESCO World Heritage list. The decision of UNESCO will depend on substantiation of these works, the permanent representative then stated.
