Friends 2 Follow

Russian Orthodox believers are celebrating Trinity Sunday with Russia’s most famous icon transferred from a museum to Moscow’s main cathedral despite the keepers’ vociferous protests. The Trinity icon by Andrei Rublev that was kept in Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery since the 1920s was moved to Christ the Savior Cathedral for the holiday on President Vladimir Putin’s order. Putin’s sudden order to hand over the 15th-century icon to the church came despite protests from the Tretyakov keepers that the icon was too fragile to move. Observers saw Putin’s abrupt order to transfer the icon to the cathedral as a reflection of his desire to strengthen ties with the church which has strongly supported the Russian military campaign in Ukraine.