From: President of the Duma Yeva Litvin
To: Chairwoman Francine M. A. Therz
Dear Ms. Francine M. A. Therz,
I am more than a bit surprised to see that your Excellency defends the practice that your Church bans in the harshest of terms*. That furthers our suspicion that your government has indeed fallen prey to the machinations of the prince of darkness.
The Samantran government whether the secular or the spiritual branch does not deny the faithfulness of the Heyran government to the teachings of your Church in the days long gone of the Great War Era and before. Of that you need not convince us, we gladly acknowledge and honor it. It is the current state of affairs that we are extremely concerned about.
The policy of the Samantran government is to never refuse talks as long there is a reasonable chance to foster peace and understanding rather than discord and conflict. It is for the reason that we accept the proposal of your Excellency and invite Consular Diplomat, Governor Maxime Anginer to Novyy Rim, the spiritual capital of the Holy Kingdom of Samantra, for informal talks with Mrs. Maria Mikhailov, the minister of Foreign Affairs.
I pray that they find common ground but until then I have instructed the government to speed up work on the proposed legislative measures since I believe our differences on the matter are hard to reconcile.
Respectfully Yours,
Yeva Litvin
President of the Duma
Holy Kingdom of Samantra
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_response_to_assisted_reproductive_technology#In_vitro_fertilization
Maria always made sure she had a cross necklace on display every time she went outside.
Maria Mikhailov was less than pleased with the meeting that was about to take place. She was very ambitious and wanted the top job of President of the Duma but lacked the popularity of Yeva Litvin to get elected. She had hoped the position of minister of Foreign Affairs would be chance to increase the popularity among the Samantran people and give her a chance to challenge Yeva at the next primary elections in the Republican Party. What she didn’t anticipate was the Yeva would give her all the unpopular tasks like this one while she kept all the popular visits like the one in Nis or the meeting with the Zaporozhs for herself.
So here she was, outside the park of the Cathedral of the Samantran Armed Forces waiting for Maxime Anginer. Not only was she not pleased to deal with Heyrans but she had to also deal with a religious matter and that was outside her control. It’s not like she could influence the position of the Samantran Orthodox Church even if she wanted to.
Just outside the park of the Cathedral of the Samantran Armed Forced, inaugurated in 2014, (sixty years after the end of the Sacred War) was where Maria waited for Maxime.
“Oh well, I just hope this won’t take long” she thought to herself while she waited for Maxime to arrive. She was alone since not only was she in Novyy Rim, arguably the safest city in Samantra, but also near the Cathedral. She knew chances for incidents here were limited and people coming here although recognized her nevertheless respected her privacy since people assumed she was here to pray rather than on business.
Once Maxime had arrived just outside the park, moved towards him and greeted him in a good enough Latin with a pronounced Rodianian accent (ooc: Russian) :
"Welcome, Mr. Anginer! I do hope you had a safe trip here. I am Maria Mikhailov, minister of Foreign Affairs for Samantra. Please walk with me to the Cathedral."
As they made their way to the cathedral they entered the park which featured replicas of Great War Era military equipment which visitors enjoyed playing with:
Maria didn’t want to immediately get down to business since that would be interpreted as rude by Samantran standards so she said to Maxime:
“The Cathedral is dedicated to the Samantran Armed Forces that’s why we have the replicas here. It’s one of the most popular cathedrals in the country.”
While they continued their way to the cathedral, visitors sometimes recognized Maria and gave a short “Hello” to both her and Maxime.
Maria continued: “Is this your first visit to the countries of the Rodinian sea?” she said in an effort to break the ice. They were close to the cathedral so they would get to business soon enough.