St. Petersburg defends transfer of landmark to church

Mikhail Mokretsov, deputy governor of Russia's second-largest city, on Thursday vowed that the city hall will make sure that tourists get unfettered access to the site.

The Russian Orthodox Church has played an active part in President Vladimir Putin's efforts to consolidate Russian society by appealing to traditional values as opposed to Western liberalism.

On Wednesday, a senior Orthodox cleric in Siberia, the Metropolitan of Novosibirsk, Tikhon, lashed out at the local opera and ballet theater for staging the classic Christmas ballet, "The Nutcracker," which he insisted was based on a "occult subject."