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President Putin attends Christmas service at Transfiguration Cathedral in St. Petersburg

The service was also attended by Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Northwestern Federal District Alexander Gutsan and acting Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov

© Aleksandr Demyanchuk/TASS

ST. PETERSBURG, January 7. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is attending an overnight Orthodox Christmas service at the Transfiguration Cathedral in Saint Petersburg.

The service was held by the Cathedral’s dean, Nikolai Bryndin. The Cathedral was full of believers including many children. The service was also attended by Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Northwestern Federal District Alexander Gutsan and acting Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov.

Putin attended the Christmas service at the Transfiguration Cathedral in Russia’s second largest city in 2012, when he held the post of the Russian prime minister. He told journalists at that time that he was Christianized at this Cathedral in his childhood.

As a rule Putin leaves Moscow for Christmas, while on Easter he stays in the Russian capital for a night-time service at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

Last year Putin went to the Christmas service at the Church of Saints Simeon and Anna in Saint Petersburg. In 2017 he attended the Christmas service at the Spassky (St. Savior) Cathedral of the St. George’s Monastery in the city of Veliky Novgorod. In 2016 went for the service at a rural Church near Voronezh. Before that he twice attended Christmas services in Sochi.

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