Clinton wrapping up 5-day tour of Europe, Russia

MOSCOW — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is wrapping up a five-day tour of Europe and Russia with a series of informal meetings in Moscow and the Russian republic of Tatarstan aimed at helping redefine U.S.-Russian relations.

Clinton attended the unveiling of a statue of the American poet Walt Whitman at Moscow State University, and then began a round-table discussion with students.

“Just as Pushkin and Whitman reset poetry, we are resetting our relations for the 21st century,” Clinton said. A statue to the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin was placed at George Washington University in Washington in 2000.

Later Wednesday, Clinton was traveling to Kazan, the capital of religiously and ethnically diverse Tatarstan, east of Moscow. She will be the first secretary of state ever to visit Kazan, which bills itself as Russia’s third capital, and Tatarstan, a oil-rich, moderate Muslim-majority republic that is often hailed as a model of multicultural tolerance.

Clinton said she heard Kazan is a beautiful city where Muslims and Orthodox Christians live peacefully together. “I want to see that for myself and hear how successful that has been,” she said Wednesday in an interview on Ekho Moskvy radio.

Clinton returns to Washington late Wednesday.