Excerpt:
Some Tatar journalists and activists are protesting the blessing given by Russian Patriarch Kirill to Muslim members of the Russian Winter Olympic team at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior last week, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports.
Several Muslims -- mainly ethnic Tatars -- on Russia's Olympic team were present in the church when the blessing was given by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church after a welcome letter from President Dmitry Medvedev was read aloud by one of his aides inside the church.
Rimma Bikmukhamedova of the Kazan-based "Irek Maydany" ("Freedom Square") newspaper, who writes mainly on religion and tolerance issues, told RFE/RL that the event orchestrated by the Orthodox Church was a public-relations stunt used to promote the church.