GERMANY, RUSSIA TO ISSUE POSTAL STAMP TOGETHER

BERLIN, JANUARY 22 (RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ALEXANDER POLOTSKY) - The German postal service is to issue a stamp together with the Russian Federation for the first time ever. This was disclosed to RIA Novosti January 21 at the German Ministry of Finance.

This joint postal stamp, due to come out June 3, 2004, will be devoted to 21st century German-Russian youth contacts, ministerial officials noted.

One stamp will cost 55 euro cents; meanwhile its sketch will be unveiled exactly six weeks prior to the official date of issue (in line with German regulations).

Moscow hosted the Russian-German youth forum in May 2002 under the auspices of Lyudmila Putin and Doris Schroeder-Kepf; that forum involved more than 300 young Russians and Germans.

A jury held its session in Moscow this past October, choosing several postal-stamp sketches, which were received from Germany and different Russian cities.

The stamp sketch was finalized by Moscow's graphic artist Alexander Ozolin, reports the German Finance Ministry.