The sea along the coast of Mount Athos was full of warships as well as coast guard and Russian security vessels. Awaiting Putin at Mount Athos was Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, with whom he had a meeting in Athens on the first day of his visit. Among the many oddities of Mount Athos is that it can only be reached by sea or by air, which contributes to the isolation so precious to its religious inhabitants. Russian President Vladimir Putin put the finishing touch on his symbolic visit to Greece with a pilgrimage to Mount Athos, the monastic republic emblematic of Orthodox Christianity, where the monks are ruled by their own autonomous laws despite being under Greek sovereignty. The chief purpose of Putin's trip to Mount Athos, the second he has made since 2005, was to visit St. Pantaleon Orthodox Monastery, known as the "Russian monastery" for the presence of Russian monks there during the last 1,000 years.

Source: Fox News May 28, 2016 23:26 UTC