Presidential elections are approaching. On March 18, polling stations will be opened not only throughout the country, but also abroad - wherever citizens of our country live and work, in about 150 states. For example, in Israel, where, as you know, "a quarter of our former people" - will open as many as 13 plots. In the ancient capital of the country, in Jerusalem, only one of them will be located - on the Sergievsky farmstead belonging to the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS). This two-story building with a tower in the street Heleni ha-Malka only seems great - it does not occupy the entire block, because inside there is a large courtyard. A house was built in the distant year of 1889, and its first 28 years of "life" did not raise its status - like many other buildings in the Holy Land, it belonged to the Russian Empire, specifically to the then-built pre-revolutionary IOPS. Then came the difficult times. It took years of negotiations and personal intervention of President Vladimir Putin, so that Israel returned the courtyard to our country. Several years have gone into restoration, and the farmstead, under the leadership of IGPO deputy chairman Igor Ashurbeyli, has reopened its doors in 2017. Of course, when the question arose about the location of the polling station in Jerusalem, the society could not but meet its own country. The first since 1917, the director of the IOPS in Israel, Igor Ashurbeyli, ordered, in agreement with the chairman of the IOPS, Sergey Stepashin, to grant the territory of the farmsteads free of charge for the organization of the polling station. As in Russia, the site will run from 8:00 to 20:00. The modern Sergievskoe metochion is the center of Russian life in Jerusalem. On the voting day, only 8 months from the day of the reopening of the monastery will be performed, but without it it is already impossible to imagine the cultural life of the Holy Land. It was here that the 170th anniversary of the Russian Spiritual Mission was celebrated in Jerusalem, the popular Antony readings were revived here. A team of guides on the city and country was organized at the metochion, the work of the museum was started and, finally, an Orthodox Sunday school was opened. And this is only the beginning of a long journey. While Russia as a whole and the IOPS in particular are fighting for the return of other imperial property, the Sergievskoe metochion alone for all represents here, in the capital of the three religions, Russia before the world. Therefore, not a single day should be wasted.

Exhibitions, concerts, meetings with the hierarchs of the church, spiritual and secular figures will take place at number 13 (true Orthodox people are not superstitious) on Heleni HaMalka constantly. In the meantime, it is a small, symbolic, but very honorable duty to host several hundred or even thousands of Russian citizens, give everyone an opportunity to express their opinion, after the closure of the site, to calculate the results and, as appropriate, send ballots to Moscow, to the Central Election Commission.