No visit to Russia for the Dalai Lama

Complicity between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping

This confirms some of my earlier postings on the subject. Russia is aligning its Tibet policy on Beijing.
The decision was probably taken during President Hu Jintao's visit to Moscow in April.
The Russian Government had been apparently decided several months ago that the Dalai Lama would not be granted a visa to visit the Buddhist republics of the Russian Federation. The statements of the Russian Embassy are just a conformation. 
With Beijing not ready to listen to Washington and Moscow openly siding with the Chinese, the position of the Dalai Lama become more tricky, at least as far as 'negotiations' are concerned. Read my earlier postings.


Wary of China, Russia says no to Dalai visit
Sachin Parashar,
Times of India
Jun 16, 2010,
NEW DELHI: In yet another manifestation of China’s might, Russian diplomats have met their Chinese counterparts in Delhi to assure Beijing that Moscow won’t allow the Dalai Lama to visit Russia "under the present circumstances". Stating that the spiritual leader’s activities had acquired a political tinge, Russian officials said their advice to the Dalai Lama was to improve relations with China and refrain from political activities.
The Russians were pushed into damage-control mode after Beijing was said to have been offended by an alleged remark by Russian ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin that Russia may issue a visa to Dalai Lama. The Chinese, however, had not registered any official protest. The Russian embassy denied that any such remark had been made by the ambassador.
The Russians have attributed the confusion to a "mistake" in the transcript of an interview which Kadakin gave to an agency recently, on a visit to Himachal Pradesh. "The Russian foreign minister has made it clear that Russia treasures strategic partnership with China and has no intention of damaging it. For this reason, Russia’s advice for the Dalai Lama is to improve relations with Beijing and stay away from politics," said a Russian embassy official in Delhi.
"If he chooses to pay a pastoral [religious] visit, there should be no problem. But he will have to look differently on the purpose of his visit first. For now, a visit by the Dalai Lama or a visa for him is out of the question," he added.
According to the Russian embassy, its diplomats have met the Chinese embassy councillor in Delhi to brief him on the Russian position and provide him with the authentic text of Kadakin’s interview.
The Dalai Lama has visited Russia several times, the last one being in 2004, to the traditionally Buddhist dominated areas of Kalmykia near the Caspian Sea. However, with Moscow being excessively keen on building good relations with Beijing, it has since refused to issue visa to the Tibetan leader.
Only last month, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov criticized Dalai Lama for his "provocative" stand.