On National Unity Day, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, after a solemn ceremony of laying flowers at the monument to Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky on Red Square, visited the XX Church and public exhibition-forum "Orthodox Russia - for National Unity Day", which takes place in the Central Exhibition Hall The Manege in Moscow.
Accompanied by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Metropolitan Tikhon of Simferopol and Crimea, the President inspected the stand on Orthodox social service. The Head of state was shown an icon created specifically for the exhibition – the image of the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna Romanova, the solemn consecration of which is timed to coincide with the 160th anniversary of her birth. The image is painted in the traditions of academic painting of the XIX–early XX century.
Vladimir Putin also got acquainted with the multimedia exhibition "Hurry up to do Good", dedicated to the traditions of volunteerism and charity in Russia – from early Christianity to the present day. The exhibition tells about those who have proved by their example the importance of kindness and mutual assistance in the world: the exhibition presents many well-known and unfamiliar facts from the lives of Russian saints, statesmen and public figures, military and cultural people.