Russia's Putin Hopes to Visit Nagasaki: Aide

Nagasaki, Nov. 3 (Jiji Press)--Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes to visit the atomic-bombed city of Nagasaki sometime in the future, visiting Valentina Matviyenko, a close aide to Putin, said Thursday. Matviyenko, chair of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia's parliament, said Putin has told her that he will visit Nagasaki soon when he finds an opportunity, if not during his planned trip to Japan in December. Matviyenko made the remarks to reporters during her visit to the southwestern Japan city, where she inspected the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and other places. At the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, the Russian upper chamber leader paid a floral tribute and signed her name on the visitors' book. Matviyenko told Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue, who accompanied her during her visit to the hall, that she fully supports Nagasaki's activities aimed at making the city the last place attacked with an atomic bomb. Taue asked Matviyenko to tell Putin what she has seen and felt in Nagasaki. The United States dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945 just before the end of World War II. END