Анджела Стент - Putin's World - Russia Against the West and with the Rest

The situation for Jews in Putin’s Russia is probably the best it has ever been—at least from the perspective of the ability to practice their religion freely. The Chabad-Lubavitch organization predominates in the post-Soviet space, and its rabbis have a privileged relationship with the Kremlin as the official representatives of the Jewish faith. Chabad rabbis focus strictly on religious affairs and avoid politics. Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar has praised Putin on many occasions and has attended events celebrating the annexation of Crimea. 49With encouragement from the Kremlin, a $50 million Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center opened in Moscow in 2012, chronicling the complex and tragic history of Jews in Russia. Putin even contributed one month of his salary to it. 50Since 2008, Russians and Israelis do not require visas to visit each other’s countries.

Russia’s relations with Israel have been significantly influenced by the 1.4 million Israelis whose families emigrated from the former Soviet Union—one-sixth of Israel’s population. Many of them still retain close ties to Russia. When Putin was deputy mayor of Saint Petersburg, in charge of foreign economic contacts, he began working with some of these emigrés and apparently developed good relations with them. As he told one of the Valdai Discussion Club members, he regards these compatriots as “our boys,” adding that he would like to bring them back to Russia. He downplayed the idea that, given the historical experience of tsarist pogroms and Soviet repression, they might not want to return. 51

Business ties between the two countries have flourished, and Israel is even negotiating an association agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union. Scientific and technical cooperation in the high-tech sector, such as in nanotechnology, is rapidly developing. Russia is one of Israel’s main oil suppliers, and Gazprom has expressed interest in investing in offshore Israeli gas fields. Israel also sells military hardware to Russia, including drones, in return for Russian pledges not to sell advanced weapons to Iran or Syria that could be used against Israel. 52Israel Aerospace Industries has been engaged in a $400 million project with Russian Oboronprom for Russian-based production of unmanned aerial vehicles. And Israel has continued its agricultural exports to Russia, benefiting from the fact that Russia sanctioned EU agricultural imports in the wake of the Ukraine sanctions.

Russia and Israel have also seen eye to eye on using harsh measures to deal with extremists and terrorists. They both view radicalized Muslims as their common enemy. Israel never criticized Russia’s wars in Chechnya, and Russia largely refrains from commenting on how Israel deals with Palestinians. As one Russian scholar points out, “Russian and Israeli politicians and generals share a no-nonsense, hard-nosed realpolitik-based view of the world.” 53However, while Israel regards Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, Russia does not. As the Russian ambassador to Israel explained, “The Supreme Court [of Russia], following an appeal by the prosecution, defines terrorist organizations as such when they intentionally conduct acts of terror in Russian territory, or against Russian interests abroad.” 54Russia maintains ties to both Hamas and Hezbollah. As a member of the Quartet on the Middle East, it has criticized Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and upholds the need for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

The Russia-Israel relationship has been nurtured by the good personal ties between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Putin, who both have been in power for many years. Netanyahu’s frosty relations with President Barack Obama, who publicly criticized Israel for its policies toward settlements and toward the Palestinians, led him to seek closer ties to Russia. Since Donald Trump came into office, US-Israel relations have improved, but this has not affected Netanyahu’s attitude toward Russia. This is largely because of the Syrian Civil War, which has necessitated close Israeli-Russian cooperation. While Syria and Israel remain in a state of war because of Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights, the two countries have developed a modus vivendi, and the Israelis prefer Assad on its border to more radical Islamist anti-Assad groups. The Syrian Civil War remains one key driver of Russian-Israeli relations, the other being Iran and its support for Hezbollah.

From Israel’s point of view, Iran is an existential threat and the main regional enemy, and it is supporting Hezbollah, which threatens Israeli territory. Since Israeli planes are in the skies combating Hezbollah’s actions in Syria, Jerusalem and Moscow have to carefully deconflict their air operations to ensure there are no Israeli-Russian air accidents similar to that between Turkey and Russia. Netanyahu visits Russia several times a year to see Putin and requests that Russia influence Iran to rein in Hezbollah. Israel has also been extremely critical of the Iran nuclear deal, in which Russia played a major part. In August 2017, Netanyahu came to Sochi with his Mossad chief to present evidence of “sensitive, credible, and very disturbing detailed intelligence” on Iran’s military presence in Syria. 55

Concern about Iran has pushed Netanyahu closer toward Putin. On May 9, 2018, Netanyahu was one of only two world leaders to visit Moscow and stand next to Putin during the Victory Day Parade. 56He wore the orange Saint George ribbon symbolizing Crimea’s reunion with Russia and marched in the Eternal Regiment parade, in which people carry photos of their relatives who fought in the war. The Israeli parliament had made Victory Day a national holiday on May 9, in line with Russia, as opposed to Europe and the US, which commemorate the victory on May 8. 57Israel had just attacked Iranian assets in Syria, after Iran had attacked Israel. In their private meeting, Netanyahu and Putin discussed their close military coordination in Syria to avoid any unintended clashes, and Putin told his Israeli guest that Russia would not sell S-300 missile systems to Syria. 58But Russia may not have the influence over Iran that Israel believes it does. The Israelis hope Russia will eventually curb Iranian influence in Syria, but it remains to be seen whether Moscow can or will seek to diminish the Iranian presence there, other than persuading the Iranians to pull back from the Israeli border. 59

From the Kremlin’s point of view, the burgeoning relationship with Israel has cemented Russia’s role as a regional power broker, replacing the United States. Putin was able to benefit from the frosty Obama-Netanyahu relationship as well as Washington’s aversion under Obama to dealing with Avigdor Lieberman. Former foreign minister and former defense minister, Lieberman has extremely hawkish views on Arabs and hails from Moldova, has praised Putin and can literally speak his language. Nevertheless, the United States still provides the lion’s share of Israel’s economic and military assistance. Since Donald Trump came into office, the situation has changed, and the US is far more supportive of Israel and less critical of its settlements. It also has taken the unprecedented step of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a move Putin has criticized. But Israel continues to pursue close ties with Russia because of Russia’s key role in its dangerous neighborhood.

In Soviet times, the USSR was a major backer of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Moscow continues to maintain active relations with the Palestinian National Authority, whose president Mahmoud Abbas received his candidate’s degree from the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow. The title of his thesis was “The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism,” in which he claimed that accounts of the Holocaust had been greatly exaggerated. But post-Soviet ties to the Palestinians are not as robust as those with the Israelis. Having formally recognized the State of Palestine in 1982, Moscow maintains a diplomatic presence in Ramallah. After the 2006 elections that brought Hamas to power in Gaza, the Kremlin took a pragmatic stance toward the intra-Palestinian dispute between Hamas and the PLO and has tried to promote reconciliation talks between the two groups. The Russian Foreign Ministry recognized East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state and affirmed, “In this context we view West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.” 60No less remarkable than the turnaround in relations with Israel has been Moscow’s recent rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, for decades an adversary of Russia.