Russian Orthodox Patriarch awards medal to Vatican representative

MOSCOW, SEPT. 4, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II has recognized the Vatican's representative in Russia for his efforts in establishing good relations between the two Churches.

Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia has awarded Archbishop Antonio Mennini the Order of the Holy Prince Daniel of Moscow, third degree, according to Interfax news.

Archbishop Mennini is being awarded "in recognition of his efforts for establishing good relations between the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches and on the occasion of his 60th birthday," the official site of the Moscow Patriarchate reported today.

Monsignor Mennini has served as the Vatican's representative in Russia since November.

These sorts of articles bring up questions. Who is Archbishop Antonio Mennini and what sorts of things does he have to say?

Here is his background. Here's an article on his opinion of clericalization.

What's the Order of the Holy Prince Daniel of Moscow?

From here we learn this:

During the Second World War the Soviet regime was forced to appeal to the patriotic sentiments; as these were not completely alienable from the religious heritage, the immediate extinction of the Orthodox Church ceased to be an item of the officious agenda. Instead of this, the regime gradually tried to integrate the Church into the atheist society. The needs of the foreign policy also demanded certain tolerance as well as the international contacts of religious leaders, which became decisive in the case of the awards. The ecclesiastical merits were still considered not loyal enough to fit into the State premial system, yet they should be somehow rewarded. In this situation, the Church was allowed and even advised to create orders and medals of its own. Ironically, the original legal status of these awards could be defined as that of the “ecclesiastical awards under the State patronage”.

Established in 1978. The badges of all three classes are worn on the left breast, which principle is applied to all other awards listed below.

Who is St. Daniel of Moscow. Wikipedia tells me:

Daniil Aleksandrovich (Даниил Александрович in Russian) (1261 - March 4/5, 1303) was the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky and forefather of all the princes of Moscow.
Daniil has been credited with founding the first Moscow monasteries, dedicated to the Lord's Epiphany and to Saint Daniel. For these services, he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1652.