Putin ‘excited’ after visit to Israel

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited Israel last Thursday, told Russian Rabbi Berel Lazar that he was excited to participate in the events which took place in Israel last week.

Putin was pleased to hear about the Moscow Jewish Communities Association conference in Moscow this week, attended by representatives of more than 200 Jewish communities in Russia, providing all religious services to hundreds of thousands of Jews across the country.

The president was proud of the fact that there is “almost no anti-Semitism” in Russia compared to Europe and the United States, and noted the positive cooperation between the government and the Jews living in Russia.

During the events of the International Holocaust Forum, Putin came to Israel and participated, among other things, at the inauguration of a monument in the Sacher Garden in Jerusalem in memory of those killed in the siege of Leningrad.

At a memorial service at Yad Vashem to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Putin said: “Today we remember all the victims of the Nazis, including six million Jews who perished in the Nazi murder camps, of which 40% are former Soviet citizens. Therefore, the Holocaust was and still is our deep wound. This is a tragedy that we will forever remember.”

“The Nazi crimes, their calculated activity – as they called it the ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Problem’ – is actually one of the most horrible pages in human history. Remember that there were collaborators for these horrific acts, and their cruelty surpassed Nazi cruelty,” Putin said at the ceremony.