SOCHI, December 4. /TASS/. Moscow will hand page 166 of Miroslav’s Gospel, the oldest Serbian manuscript, to Belgrade in the near future, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday at a news conference after his talks with Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic.

The Russian leader focused on intense cooperation between the two countries in the field of culture.

"Russia helps embellish the interior of the St. Sava Church in Belgrade. Until the end of the year, work on its altar and the central part will be over. In the near future, Serbia will be handed the most valuable Serbian artefact - the manuscript of Miroslav’s Gospel, which is kept in Russia," Putin said.

An agreement to hand a page of the medieval Cyrillic manuscript back to Belgrade was inked during Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to the Serbian capital in October. The document stipulates that Serbia will reciprocate by handing Nicholas Roerich’s seven paintings to Russia.

Miroslav’s Gospel

Miroslav’s Gospel was created in about 1180. It is Serbia’s oldest manuscript written in Cyrillic, which is housed at the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade. In 2005, Miroslav’s Gospel was added to the UNESCO Memory of the World list. Written by deacon Gregory, the manuscript was commissioned by Prince Miroslav Zavidovic, a brother of Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanjic dynasty. Later, the Gospel was named after Prince Miroslav. In about 1845, Archimandrite Porphyrius (Uspensky) discovered the manuscript at the Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos. He extracted one page from it and brought it to Russia.

Roerich’s paintings

The fate of the paintings by Nicholas Roerich in question, discovered in the collection of the National Museum of Serbia, remained unknown since the moment Nazi Germany attacked Yugoslavia in April 1941. The seven paintings on the list are Berendej Village (1921), Holy Guests (1923), Church Bells Tolling (1919), Burgustan on Caucasus, St. Sergius of Radonezh (1922), and two costume sketches for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Snow Maiden (1921). One of the paintings on the list was reportedly Roerich’s gift to the Belgrade Museum. The others had been brought there for a personal exhibition. World War II prevented the exhibits’ return to Russia.