Knesset Speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein is scheduled to travel to Moscow June 27-29 and address the upper house of the Russian parliament in both Hebrew and Russian. Edelstein`s first official visit as Knesset Speaker will be held, symbolically, about 30 years after he was released from a Soviet prison in July 1987.
While in Moscow, Edelstein is also scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin of the lower house of the Russian parliament and Russian lawmakers who are members of the friendship group with the Knesset. Edelstein is also scheduled to meet with the leaders of the Jewish community in Moscow and visit the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center.
Ahead of the visit, Speaker Edelstein said, ”One cannot ignore the symbolism of the visit - which could have seemed like a mirage only a few years ago - in which someone who was a prisoner in the Soviet Union will stand at the podium of the parliament in Moscow and deliver a speech as the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset.”