Peres: Russia-U.S. cooperation crucial to world stability
MOSCOW. Nov 7 (Interfax) - Israeli President Shimon Peres argued on Wednesday that Russian-U.S. cooperation is crucial to global stability and indispensable for the prevention of global disasters.
"It would have been impossible to defeat Nazism without interaction between the United States and the Soviet Union. If they saved [the world] from Hitler then, now these two countries should join forces to save nations from the new Hitler," Peres said during a reception marking his current visit to Russia.
He said he personally knew the Russian and American presidents, Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama, quite well.
Peres praised Russia. "The words 'Great Russia' mean 'a great heart,'" he said.
He mentioned that the Israeli population includes 1.2 million immigrants from countries of the former Soviet Union.
"It was here that the State of Israel was born, for the majority of founders of our state come from here," he said.
"Just as ourselves, Russia has experienced a great deal of suffering," Peres said.
"Thank you to the Russian people from the Jewish people, thank you for something that has been done for centuries," he said.
He credited the Soviet Union with a large role in saving the Jews from annihilation during World War II.
"I feel at home here," Peres said.
He said, however, that, though "there has been a lot of sunshine" in Russian-Israeli relations, "there have been some shadows as well."
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