Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi told reporters that the decision had been made, and President Putin promised to take “under his protection all the work to improve our courtyard.” And somehow everyone forgot that until recently the lower church in Bari belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, whose parish had been diligently ousted since the late 90s. Meanwhile, the Church Abroad took care of the temple from 1917 to 1937, when, due to lack of money, it had to transfer the property to the municipality of Bari, retaining the parish. Now, of course, we can consider that the two branches have reunited... but the sediment remains.