Putin Compares Mandela to Gandhi, Solzhenitsyn
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday paid tribute to Nelson Mandela, comparing him to Mahatma Gandhi and Soviet dissident and Nobel prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
"Without doubt he was a great friend of our people," Putin told reporters as he visited the South African embassy in Moscow to honor the memory of the anti-apartheid icon and Russia's "great friend."
The Russian strongman signed a condolence book and called Mandela "a great humanist" who can be compared to Gandhi and Solzhenitsyn, who was jailed by the Soviet authorities.
"It was our country -- the Soviet Union -- that in the most active manner supported South Africa and other countries in Africa in their fight against racial segregation, their fight for justice and democracy," Putin told reporters.
A memorial service was being held Tuesday in South Africa for the anti-apartheid icon, with close to 100 world leaders attending.
Russia was to be represented at the ceremony by Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the parliament's upper house.
Source: Agence France Presse
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