On 25 March 1987, WJC leaders Edgar M. Bronfman, Israel Singer, Sol Kanee and Elan Steinberg, as well as the head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Morris B. Abram, arrived in Moscow to discuss the matter with Soviet government ministers, though officials swiftly denied that the USSR had agreed to an increase in Jewish emigration and had invited an Israeli delegation to visit Moscow. Nonetheless, the visits by WJC officials to Moscow were widely seen as helpful in securing the exit permits for prominent Jews in the Soviet Union.