“People-to-people relations are amazing,” Azari said. “But relations between Russia and Israel concern not only tourism. I’m witnessing an amazing revival of religion in this country. For many Russians, Israel is a holy place. No wonder the number of Russian tourists coming to Israel has almost tripled. Even though last year saw a terrible economic crisis, we had 4,200 tourists – for us, it’s great.”

Azari also said that the dialogue between two countries has improved dramatically.

“As with any other two countries, we don’t necessarily agree on every nuance of our relations, but unlike in the past, our leadership now has close contacts with Russian leaders. The number of Israeli politicians visiting Russian officials has grown significantly,” she said.

The ambassador also outlined the main issues Israel is going to work on in its relations with Russia.

“In recent years, there’s been a drop in trade between the countries. Israel also hopes to participate in the preparations for the forthcoming Olympic Games in Sochi 2012. And one more, sad, field of cooperation is the renewed terror attacks,” Azari told RT.