Putin pays tribute to Shimon Peres

In his telegram of condolences, Vladimir Putin highly praised Shimon Peres’ “personal contribution towards achieving a peaceful settlement in the Middle East” and offered sympathy for his loss to President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, his relatives, friends and all the people of Israel. He won sincere respect at home and abroad for his efforts as Israel’s statesman, said Putin, and will be always remembered as "a consistent supporter of developing friendly Russian-Israeli relations and mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation.

"I was happy to communicate with this outstanding person many times. Each time I admired his courage and patriotism, wisdom and far-sightedness, the ability to get to the bottom of the most difficult issues," Putin stressed.