The Commissioner of the Garda Siochana, Mr Patrick Byrne, and the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Lieut Gen David Stapleton, will visit Russia before the end of the year as part of an agreement between Ireland and Russia to fight crime and terrorism jointly, the Taoiseach said yesterday in Moscow. Mr Ahern was speaking at a breakfast for the international media in the Hotel Metropol, near the Kremlin, on the final day of his official visit to the Russian Federation.
In a hectic day, Mr Ahern and his party met five leading politicians in different parts of Moscow within five hours.
In the State Duma, the Taoiseach met the powerful Speaker, Mr Gennady Seleznyov, before moving to the City Hall for talks with Moscow's mayor, Mr Yuri Luzhkov.
Mr Ahern announced that the Moscow City Trade Development Organisation had decided to open an office in Dublin. Mr Luzhkov described Ireland as one of Russia's oldest partners and accepted condolences offered by the Taoiseach to the people of Moscow on behalf of the people of Ireland following the spate of bombings in the Russian capital.
After meetings with the Speaker of the upper house of parliament, Mr Yegor Stroyev, and the Mayor of St Petersburg, Mr Vladimir Yakovlev, Mr Ahern travelled to the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation to visit the powerful former prime minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, who has consistently topped opinion polls as Russia's most popular politician. The invitation to Mr Ahern to visit Russia came from Mr Primakov.
Mr Ahern flew to St Petersburg in the afternoon, before returning to Dublin.
