Knesset President Yuli Edelstein will become the first Israeli official to address the upper house of the Russian Parliament this week, a landmark that is even more important given that he was a Prisoner of Sion in the Soviet Union .
“It’s a special trip, and there’s a lot of excitement about it,” Edelstein said Monday. “The aim is to further develop the excellent ties between our countries, especially the connections between the Knesset and the Russian Parliament. They are better than ever, with excellent cooperation in different areas and a deep friendship. ”
Edelstein and a Knesset delegation will go to Moscow Tuesday morning, where they will hold meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, his counterpart of the Federation Council, Valentina Matviyenko, and the chairman of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament , Vyacheslav Volodin, as well as leaders of the Russian Jewish community.
Edelstein said that “he can not ignore the symbolism that just a few years ago might have seemed a mirage, that someone who was a prisoner in the Soviet Union would be on the stage of the parliament in Moscow and speak in Hebrew as President of the Israeli Knesset” . Read more here.
{Matzav}
