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The state should back the Russian Orthodox Church’s efforts to restore the New Jerusalem Monastery with all-round support, Mr Medvedev said at the Board of Trustees’ meeting.

The President and Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia proposed that a number of ministers, representatives of the regional authorities, and also bankers and entrepreneurs become members of the Fund and the Board of Trustees.

First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov will head the Fund and organise the Board of Trustees’ work.

Mr Medvedev stressed the need for scientifically justified approaches to the restoration work, given that each monument has its own design, engineering and landscaping particularities.

Special effort needs to be made, including with the help of international groups, to find objects of cultural value lost during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945), Mr Medvedev said.

The monastery was founded in 1656 by Patriarch Nikon. In his vision it was to become the centre of the Orthodox world. Some of the monastery’s buildings are modelled on buildings in Jerusalem.

The monastery was closed in 1919 and the New Jerusalem Museum opened at the site.

Nazi forces occupied the site for three weeks in 1941, and during this time the museum was plundered, the tower and belfry destroyed, and the church building seriously damaged.

The process of handing the site back to the Russian Orthodox Church began in 1994.