MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2020) Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to hold talks with his Israeli counterpart, Reuven Rivlin, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Jerusalem on Thursday.
The one-day visit is timed to the 5th World Holocaust Forum, entitled "Remembering the Holocaust: Fighting Antisemitism" and dedicated this year to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by the Red Army. Putin is expected to be the first among foreign attendants to hold a speech at the forum. His address is expected to touch upon the role of Soviet soldiers in defeating the Nazism, issues surrounding attempts to revise history, and a number of topics on the international agenda.
Putin's private talks with Rivlin and Netanyahu are expected to last 40-45 minutes each.
The expected topics of discussion include issues pertaining to the Russian-Israeli trade and economic affairs as well as the international and regional agenda with a focus on the middle East and escalation of tensions around Iran, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Netanyahu and Putin are also expected to meet with Yaffa Issachar, the mother of Israeli-US citizen Naama Issachar who is serving a prison term in Russia for drug trafficking, and discuss the question of her daughter's possible pardon. The meeting will also be attended by Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem.
