Iran’s ambassador to Russia will attend “KazanSummit-2016”

Registration of participants of the VIII International Economic Summit, Russia - Islamic World: KazanSummit-2016 is continuing on the website kazansummit.ru.  Virtually, guests are beginning to arrive to Tatarstan. Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Russia Mr. Mehdi Sanaei is one of the first registered members.

He is the first Iranian Ambassador who is fluent in not only English and Arabic, but Russian also. Mr. Sanaei was officially appointed to position in December 2013.  But he had already been working in Russia from 1999 to 2004 as a first chief executive of Cultural Center of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Moscow. Having held the office, he visited almost all centers of Iranian studies in different cities of Russia and educational institutions, where students study Persian language. He lent big help in creating specialized Iranian rooms with vast libraries in Iranian language and computer programs with Persian script.

In 1999 Mr. Sanaei established Russian-language magazine “Persia”, later on renamed in “Iran Today”. From 1999 to 2003 he gave a course of lectures on political science in Russian State Humanitarian University, and special course on Islamic law in the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Science. In 2003 he was granted title of honor “Honored member of the Union of Writers of Russia”.

Mehdi Sanaei was born in 1968 in the ancient Persian city Nahavand, which was founded in the time of Darius the Great. He was elected at the Iranian parliament – Majlis twice – in 2008 and 2012, where he led group on cooperation with Russia and Ukraine.

An international lawyer by training, guest of the Summit graduated from Tehran University in 1995 with a master degree. He is a Member of Scientific Council of a Faculty of Law and Political Science. He established chair of Russia Research at the Faculty of World Studies. Moreover, Dr.Sanaei is a chief executive of IRAS research center specialized on studies on Russia, Central Asia and Caucasus.

Dr. Sanaei is an author of many books on international relations. In his speeches, he repeatedly pointed out the growing interest in the study of Russia and the Russian language in Iran, saying: "There is every reason to believe that tourism and exchange of cultural delegations in both directions will start developing in the near future," His visit to Kazan and active participation in the summit gives a personal example.