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Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) attend a meeting with members of European Jewish Congress executive committe at the Kremlin in Moscow.
Photo: AFP Copyright 2007
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MOSCOW (EJP)---European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring his influence to bear on Iran’s president.
"The potential of a nuclear Iran is not just a Middle East issue. Iran is the major state supporter of International terrorism. If Iran had the ability to export nuclear weaponry to terror organisations, the danger and horror that awaits the world is immense," Russian-born Kantor said after meeting Putin at the Kremlin Wednesday evening at the head of a delegation of the European Jewish Congress (EJC).
Putin will visit Tehran next week to attend a conference of countries bordering the Caspian Sea. He is scheduled to meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"The Iranian leader’s obsession with Holocaust denial is frightening and a signal to us all that we need to learn the lessons from the past if we wish to secure our future," Kantor said.
Putin was accompanied at the meeting by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Kantor also spoke about the major issues facing European Jewish communities, primarily the rise of anti-Semitism across Europe.
According to the EJC leader, Putin confirmed his commitment to religious freedom in Russia and to stamping out a rising tide of anti-Semitism, both from Islamic countries as well as that which is emanating from both Western and Eastern Europe.
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During his talks with the European Jewish Congress delegation on Wednesday, Putin described Iranian nuclear weapons as "a strategic threat."
He said that nuclear weapons in Iranian hands was also a strategic threat to Russia, even more than to other countries.
Earlier, the Russian leader had said there is no proof that Tehran is seeking to build atomic weapons. With no "objective data" showing Iran is working on nuclear arms, "we proceed from an assumption that Iran has no such plans," Putin declared after his talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Tuesday night at the Russian president's country residence. |
“The Jewish community in Russia is deeply grateful for the priority given by this Administration to freedom of religion,” Kantor commented.
The Russian president said that the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Siberia was “shameful” and that the administration will deal very seriously with acts of this kind.
Kantor’s meeting with President Putin followed a series of meetings Tuesday with several senior Russian officials including Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Russian Parliament’s committee for foreign affairs, and Alexander Torshin, deputy chairman of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly.
The EJC received positive feedback following their call for Russia to adopt the UN Resolution that makes 27 January a national Holocaust Memorial Day.
The International Holocaust Day was introduced by the
United Nations in November 2005.
Kantor added: "The lack of Holocaust education in parts of Eastern Europe and Russia is disappointing. Legislation is but one side of the coin in the fight against anti-Semitism and xenophobia but Holocaust education and commemoration are crucial central policies of the EJC.”
The EJC, he said, will work closely with the Russian government to ensure that a suitable programme can be developed.
