Thousands of people in Russia's second-largest city are holding competing demonstrations. The protests were both for and against the return of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Russian Orthodox Church is the country's predominant religion. Critics say it has become too closely allied with the Kremlin.
St. Isaac’s Cathedral is one of St. Petersburg's top tourist destinations. The Russian government seized the building after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Officials turned the church into a museum. But last month the city announced it would return the cathedral to church control.
Opponents fear that tours will now focus on the cathedral's religious aspects instead of its architectural and cultural importance.
"One of the city's biggest museums is being ruined," claims Anna Polovikina, an opponent of the handover.
Proponents of returning St. Isaac's to the church say secular control debases the cathedral.
Demonstrator Vitaly Milonov is a Russian parliament member. He supports putting the church back in charge. He says that as a museum, St. Isaac's became "a business that feeds itself . . . the rare church services held in the cathedral are like theater for tourists."
The demonstration supporting church control attracted about 1,000 people, while the one in opposition was twice that size.
Which side of the church controversy would you be on? Why?
