Moscow (CNSNews.com) - The head of a predominantly Buddhist region of Russia is traveling to China to seek Beijing's approval for a visit by the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, to visit Russia.

The move follows Moscow's refusal to allow the Dalai Lama to visit for fear of annoying the Chinese government.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of Russia's southern internal republic of Kalmykia - where half of the 300,000 population is Tibetan Buddhist - pledged Monday that the envisaged visit to Kalmykia by the Dalai Lama would have no "political coloration."

The Dalai Lama is regarded as the spiritual leader of Russia's nearly one million followers of Mahayana Buddhism.

Ilyumzhinov is visiting Lhasa, the administrative center of Tibet, to tell Chinese officials there that the visit would be "purely religious."

The Dalai Lama would only inaugurate new Buddhist temples in Kalmykia, according to Ilyumzhinov's spokesman.

Ilyumzhinov, a 43-year-old millionaire, is the first Russian politician to visit Lhasa. Last September, he visited the Dalai Lama in India - where the Nobel Peace Prize winner lives in exile - and handed over a formal invitation.

The Dalai Lama accepted the invitation to visit Kalmykia. But the plan was jeopardized when the Russian foreign ministry declined to grant the Tibetan leader a visa, saying the decision was "in line with Russia's national interests."

Beijing has in the past reacted strongly to steps by other countries that it sees as interfering in China's internal affairs, relating both to Tibet and Taiwan.

It regards the Dalai Lama as a "separatist" pushing for independence for Tibet, a sparsely populated Himalayan territory that was independent for four decades until occupied by China in the 1950s.

The foreign ministry said Russia "respects the Dalai Lama as a prominent religious dignitary who has many followers in our country" but had to respect its international obligations.

It cited a 2001 treaty with China, in which Russia pledged to support Beijing's policy to defend its territorial integrity.

In the bilateral Treaty of Good Neighborly Relations, Friendship and Cooperation, Russia acknowledged that Taiwan and Tibet were parts of China.

As Moscow was refusing the visa application last month, the Dalai Lama was in the United States, where he met with President Bush. Since then, he has also visited France, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

The Tibetan leader has visited Russia on previous occasions since the breakup of the Soviet Union, in 1992 and 1994.

September's decision to deny him entry is the third in two years.

Also last month, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was in Beijing to discuss a $2.5 billion oil pipeline project from Siberia to China.

Analysts here believe Russia was reluctant to put at risk the lucrative pipeline deal by upsetting China over the Tibet issue.

Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.