Moscow authorities have cancelled the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade amid concerns over its impact on the city's chronic traffic problems.
Irish Ambassador to Russia Philip McDonagh said instead of the parade, started by former mayor Yury Luzhkov in 1992, an indoor concert was being held on Sunday, March 20, which would feature Irish piano virtuoso Miceal O'Rourke, the Irish Times reported.
"This event, of which the city of Moscow is joint patron, replaces the parade - an experiment we are trying this year in view of the cold weather and the priority that is being given at present to resolving Moscow's traffic problems," McDonagh was quoted by the Irish Times as saying.
The Irish say the cancellation is not linked to the expulsion last month of a Russian diplomat from Dublin after he was found guilty of stealing the identities of Irish citizens to produce fake passports for a spy ring uncovered in the United States last year.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sacked Luzhkov last September, saying he had lost "trust" in the longtime mayor. Sergei Sobyanin, who is Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's close aide, was ushered in as a replacement and vowed to beat Moscow's near-constant traffic gridlock before it beat him.
Sobyanin travelled to Seoul last month seeking advice on how to go about the problem. It may well be that the cancellation of the parade is part of the South Korean traffic cure-all.
MOSCOW, March 2 (RIA Novosti)
