Today(11), Ambassador Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka and Madame Sanja Jayatilleka made their first visit to the State Duma, or “the Thought of State”, as it translates from Russian, the historic Russian Parliament established at the time of turmoils of 1905-1906, a period now called the First Russian Revolution. The State Duma, re-convoked in the early years of the post-Soviet presidential republic in 1993, is now the lower house of the two-chamber Russian Parliament – and is its only elected chamber.
Today’s visit was the long-awaited opportunity to meet Hon. Evgeny Primakov, Jr., the grandson of Academician Evgeny Primakov, who became later the Russian Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, also known as “Russia’s Kissinger”, and whom the present Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Russia had met in Colombo in his youth, in 1976.
Hon. Evgeny Primakov Jr., MP, a historian and journalist, archorman of one of the popular international politics reviews on Russia24 federal TV channel, was elected to the Parliament in 2018 and became a foreign policy advisor to the State Duma Speaker. He has had a broad experience from covering developments in Middle East hotspots as a reporter to directing a humanitarian NGO coordinating medical aid to Africa and Central Asia.
The Ambassador and Mr. Primakov found a number of shared values and aspirations, for instance to re-activate a more comprehensive and multi-faceted international outlook to put current bilateral and regional relations into a broader context. Both interlocutors underscored the importance of revitalizing the global peace movement which could unite different groups and parties, often lacking other common points.
Ambassador Jayatilleka was particularly happy to hear Hon. Evgeny Primakov mention that Sri Lanka should return into the focus of Russian foreign policy studies within regional and global frameworks.
Evgeny Primakov, Jr. cited his iconic grandfather’s core principles taught early in his childhood: “Work hard, be honest and love your country”.
