Peace Declared between Denmark and Russia
On 2 December the Moscow the Moscow International Rotary Club met in the library of the Katerina Hotel near Paveletskaya to hear the Danish Ambassador to Russia, Per Carlsen, talking about 500 years of peace between Denmark and Russia. In fact, the period was 516 years since the bench-mark date was the Treaty of Copenhagen in 1493 when Ivan III tried to ensure Danish neutrality in his war with the Lithuanians. Mr Carlsen selected some interesting incidents and personalities from the history of relations between the two countries, including the discovery of the Bering Strait, the marriage of Princess Dagmar to the future Alexander III, and the story of C.A. Kofoed, who was the inspiration behind the agricultural reforms of Peter Stolypin in the early 1900s. Finally, Mr Carlsen noted that next April, President Medvedev is planning a sate visit to Denmark, and that this will be the first since 1964, when Nikita Khrushchev visited, one month before he fell from power.
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