Celebrating Thirty Years of Renewed Diplomatic Relations Between Russia and Israel

19 January 2022

MGIMO-University Press publishes 30 Years of Russian-Israeli Relations: Past, Present and Future, a book of immense significance for the history of international relations and diplomacy.

Consisting of 19 articles, the book is a joint analytical project of MGIMO University, the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University (INSS), and LS Group Consulting LTD (Israel). The project's contributors from Russia, Israel and the United States look at Russian-Israeli relations from five angles: history, humanitarian affairs, economy, regional politics and global politics.

In the first section of the book, MGIMO University Rector, member of the RAS Anatoly Torkunov, and INSS Director Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg note that essential factors in developing bilateral relations between Russia and Israel are the interpenetration of cultures, historical memory shared by the two countries, and a mutual desire to oppose attempts to tamper with the history of World War II.

In their articles, Russian and Israeli Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Yair Lapid focus on the present state of Russian-Israeli cooperation in various areas. Thus, Sergey Lavrov recalls that the USSR was the first country that recognized the State of Israel de jure in May 1948. Despite our two countries' relations going through both ups and downs, "today we can say with certainty that Russian-Israeli cooperation has stood the test of time and continues to grow in all areas."

Academician Alexey Gromyko, Tatyana Karasova, former Advisor on Culture, Science and Education for the first Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv, and Israel's first Ambassador in Moscow, Aryeh Levin, share their memories about a complex background of the restoration of Russian – Israeli diplomatic relations in 1991. Social and humanitarian aspects of bilateral cooperation are explored in articles by Israeli diplomat Neta Briskin-Peleg, President of the Russian Jewish Congress Yuri Kanner, and CEO of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Haim Ben Yaakov.

In their articles for the book, Konstantin Simonov, Director of the Russian National Energy Security Fund, Asian Studies experts Dmitry Mariasis and Anton Bizyaev of the Russian Academy of Science, and Elena Margovsky-Lotem, an economic expert at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, all focus on the economic aspect of Russian-Israeli relations. The political dimension of bilateral cooperation is explored in the studies of former Israeli Ambassador to Moscow Zvi Magen, retired IDF General and INSS Managing Director Udi Dekel, Ambassador and Chairman of the Association of Russian Diplomats Prof. Andrey Baklanov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky, and a leading expert of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) Micky Aharonson.

Ambassador Dennis Ross, a renowned American statesman of the turn of the last century, Thomas Graham, Distinguished Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York, and Daniel Rakov, a fellow of the Russian Studies Program at INSS, present a retrospective view on Russian-Israeli relations from Washington.

Two MGIMO contributors to the publication are Vice-Rector Vladimir Morozov and a leading researcher of the Center for Middle East Studies Alexander Krylov. Their article Russian-Israeli Relations: View from Moscow analyses positive and negative factors that influence the bilateral cooperation between our countries.

As the book presents significant interest to the international expert community and a broader readership in Russia and beyond, it will be available in English and Hebrew very shortly.