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Israeli ambassador says he is about to end mission in Russia

"I will complete my work in Moscow in late December and retire," Alexander Ben Zvi said

Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alexander Ben Zvi Valery Sharufulin/TASS

Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alexander Ben Zvi

© Valery Sharufulin/TASS

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alexander Ben Zvi told TASS he would complete his diplomatic service in Moscow in late December and retire.

"Regrettably, I can confirm this," the diplomat said, answering to a reporter’s question. "I will wrap up my work in Moscow in late December and retire."

"I will have a successor. She is very competent. Her name is Simona Halperin. She will arrive the day after my mission is over," the ambassador added.

Ben Zvi has held the post of the Israeli Ambassador to Russia since November 2020.

Halperin was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1969. She repatriated to Israel in 1976 and began diplomatic service with the Foreign Ministry of Israel in 1993. She held various offices at Israel’s diplomatic missions abroad, including in Kazakhstan, North Korea and the European Union. She is now the deputy head of the Israeli foreign ministry’s Department of Eurasia and the Western Balkans, which, among other things, is in charge of diplomatic ties with Russia and post-Soviet countries.

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