MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. Israeli Ambassador to Moscow Simona Halperin will be summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry over inadmissible remarks, the Russian diplomatic agency told TASS.
"Due to unacceptable public statements by the Israeli envoy, which distort Russian foreign policy approaches and historical facts, Halperin will be summoned to the Foreign Ministry," the agency said, commenting on the envoy’s interview with leading newspaper Kommersant. The ministry noted that her statements marked a "highly inauspicious beginning to a diplomatic mission that should be aimed at developing bilateral relations in the interests of the people of the two countries."
The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the "particular outrage is that the Israeli ambassador makes disrespectful comments about the efforts that Russia is undertaking in its interaction directed at assisting in determining the fate of hostages." "Statements that the Holocaust was the extermination of Jewish people alone contradict the resolution of the UN General Assembly," the agency said. "While the reflections on the necessity of changing, as Halperin put it, Russia’s ‘state calendar’ border on meddling in the country’s internal affairs," the ministry concluded.