YEREVAN, Nov. 27 (ArmenPress) - The Friday meeting of President Vladimir Putin and the religious leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan gave a fresh impetus to the Karabagh settlement, Metropolitan of Smolensk Kirill has told Itar-Tass.

Putin stressed a special role of the religious leaders in the solution of problems of Nagorno-Karabagh, he said. The dialogue of the religious leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan mediated by Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexiy II is very important, he noted. "The religious leaders have managed to do away with the religious coloring of the conflict despite the fierce confrontation," he noted.

The metropolitan noted that "friendly relations are forming between the religious leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan and, to some extent, it is a token of the future settling of the bleeding conflict in the Caucasus."