RUSSIA: JAPANESE PM MORI SEEKING RAPPROCHEMENT

(30 Apr 2000) Natural Sound Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said on Sunday he was following the policy of his predecessor in seeking rapprochement with Russia. Mori wound up his three-day visit to Russia with a sight seeing tour of St. Petersburg and a visit to the St. Petersburg State University. Speaking to students at the university, he said his foreign policy was a continuation of the policy of his predecessor Keizo Obuchi. Mori’s trip, his first as prime minister, was arranged when he was still second-in-command in Japan’s governing party; he became prime minister this month after Obuchi was incapacitated by a stroke. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori stayed in St. Petersburg for a third and final day of his visit to Russia. On Sunday, he devoted the first part of the day to sightseeing. Mori started his day by visiting the Peter and Paul Fortress where he visited a church where Russia’s Czars were buried. Late