A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had decided to grant the Dalai Lama a visa, but hours later said that the decision could be reconsidered -- the uncertainty apparently reflecting Moscow's fear of angering China.
Moscow had rejected previous requests three times, saying it considers Tibet to be "an inalienable part of China," and has refrained from any official contacts with the Dalai Lama.
But Alexander Yakovenko, the top Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a statement Friday that the Dalai Lama would be allowed to travel to the majority-Buddhist Kalmykia republic and his visit would be of a "solely confessional character."
"We relate with respect to the desire of the more than 1 million Buddhists in our country who have appealed more than once for a pastoral visit by the Dalai Lama," Yakovenko said.
"Bearing that in mind, and also taking into account the fact that the church is divided from the state in the Russian Federation, it was decided to give the Dalai Lama a visa to visit the Kalmyk Republic," Yakovenko said.
But hours later, Yakovenko told reporters that the "unnecessary uproar being created around the Dalai Lama's possible trip to Kalmykia raises doubts about its excessively pastoral character," the Interfax news agency reported. "Because of that, the issue of the dates of the visit and of issuing a visa to him remains open."
Earlier in the day, Yakovenko said the Dalai Lama was scheduled to sanctify a Buddhist temple in Elista, the Kalmyk capital, and that no meetings with Russian officials were planned.
The statement came after Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the head of Russia's Kalmykia region -- where half of the 300,000 residents are Buddhists -- invited the Dalai Lama to visit this weekend.
Yakovenko stressed that Russia's position remained that Tibet was part of China.
"China is our strategic partner and we accord great significance to the development of Russian-Chinese relations," he said, adding that Tibet is an internal matter for China.
Since the 1991 Soviet collapse, China has developed friendly ties with Russia and has become the No. 1 customer for Russian arms manufacturers. In 2001, Russia and China signed a friendship treaty that included an article affirming Russia's support for China's territorial integrity.
China occupied Tibet in 1951 and claims the Himalayan region has been Chinese territory for centuries.
The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India after an aborted uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
RSS