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Monument to Russian-Armenian friendship unveiled in Yerevan's downtown

YEREVAN, December 02. /ITAR-TASS/. The monument to many-century Russian-Armenian friendship was unveiled at a festive ceremony in central Yerevan on Monday. The unveiling ceremony, which Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan attended, is timed to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit that will begin in the Caucasian republic on Monday.

The 4.5-meter-high obelisk named “Common Cross” is made of two statues of two young women, who are carrying the Christian cross and bowed to it. The authors of the monument are famous Moscow sculptor, People’s Artist of Russia, a laureate of the Lenin Prize Fridrikh (Frid) Sogoyan, who is a disciple of Yevgeny Vuchetich, and his sons — honored artist of Russia Vage Sogoyan and honoured artist of Armenia Mikael Sogoyan, as well as the architects — father and son Razmik and Tigran Manukyans.

The obelisk is a replica of the monument that was erected in Moscow on August 29, 1997, in the courtyard at Nikitskiye Vorota on the occasion of the 850th anniversary of Moscow foundation. “Like the Moscow statue this monument is made of fair grey granite from the Mansurovskoye deposit in the Russian Ural Republic of Bashkortostan, but the monument in Yerevan is one meter higher,” the sculptor told Itar-Tass.

The creation of the Yerevan replica of the monument became possible thanks to donations of Moscow business people — head of MonArch concern Sergei Ambartsumyan and head of the office of the Yerevan mayor’s office in Moscow Makar Nagapetyan.

The bottom of the monument carries an inscription that late Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexis II proposed and consecrated, “Blessed in the centuries the friendship between the peoples of Russia and Armenia.”

This monument of Russian-Armenian friendship is put on a common postal stamp which was introduced in circulation on January 22, 2006 on the occasion of Armenia’s Year in Russia.

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisyan and Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, who are the co-chairpersons of the intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation, delivered speeches at an unveiling ceremony of the monument in Yerevan on Monday.

The monument is placed in the Yerevan student district, in a cosy courtyard on the crossroads of streets Moskovyan (Moskovskaya), Nalbandyan and Isaakyan.