Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Secretary General Professor Michael Chlenov made a working visit to Petrozavodsk. He visited the local synagogue and Jewish school, and met with the leaders of the Petrozavodsk Jewish community.

During the day when the EAJC Secretary General was scheduled to arrive, members of the local Jewish community found that a monument to the victims of the Holocaust and the Stalin repressions, which had been erected in the form of a menorah at the Memorial Jewish cemetery, has been destroyed. In connection with this sad incident, Michael Chlenov and the local community leader, Chairman of the Regional Jewish National Cultural Autonomy of the Republic of Karelia Dmitry Tsvibel visited the Memorial Cemetery, and gave a short interview to the journalists of the Nika TV company. The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Secretary General expressed his indignation on behalf of the Congress at this act of vandalism, and stressed that while anti-Semitism has grown somewhat weaker recently, it still has not disappeared, and is yet a threat to society.

The EAJC Secretary General participated in a round table on tolerance, which took place in the Petrozavodsk town hall. Professor Chlenov noted in his speech the vandalism at the Memorial Cemetery, and, invoking the local authorities present at the meeting, called for a swift investigation of the crime, and to start work on making sure such things do not happen again.