Hindu temple to come up in Moscow

Moscow Mayor's assurance to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit

# To replace demolished temple
# Initial opposition from church

MOSCOW: The city government here will give land for a Krishna temple, ending a longstanding controversy over whether Hindus should have a place of worship in the Russian capital.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit said the Mayor of Moscow had assured her he would allot land. This promise was also registered in a Joint Statement issued at the end of Ms. Dixit's talks with the Mayor.

In 2004 Moscow's Hare Krishna temple was demolished under a city development plan, and the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKON), which operated it, was offered another piece of land to build a temple. However, the offer was withdrawn following protests from the Russian Orthodox Church against plans to build a temple that would eclipse the Christ the Saviour Cathedral, the main Orthodox church here.

ISKON later scaled down its temple plan, but it is only now that the Mayor cleared the project.