On October 12-13, 2006, Moscow hosted the international conference "Russia-Israel: 15 Years of Restoring Diplomatic Relations", organized by the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the assistance of the Russian Foreign Ministry. The Moscow Society of Friends of the University of Jerusalem provided great assistance in its preparation and implementation. The conference was attended by Russian scientists, representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, specialists from the universities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and representatives of the Embassy of the State of Israel in Moscow. The program of meetings included discussion of a wide range of issues related to the history and current state of Russian-Israeli relations: History of the development of bilateral relations between the USSR and the Jewish community in Palestine (1927-1948): party and socio-cultural relations. Soviet-Israeli relations in the period 1948-1967 (the creation of the State of Israel and the role of the Soviet Union; political, economic, and cultural ties). Contacts between the USSR and Israel in the period 1967-1991 Bilateral relations at the present stage-1991-2006 (the process of restoring relations; interstate and public relations). The conference was opened by R. B. Rybakov, Director of the Institute of Information Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Honorary guests were: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia A.V. Saltanov, Ambassador of the State of Israel to Russia A. Milman, Vice-Rector of MGIMO(U) Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation V. P. Vorobyov, President of Tel Aviv University, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States I. Rabinovich. Since the conference program did not include discussion of any topics on which the current positions of Russia and Israel differ, it was possible to assume that there would be no serious clash of opinions and that the discussion would focus on secondary, purely theoretical issues. This, howeve ... Read more