Putin’s Courting of Israel Fades as Ties Turn Bitter on Ukraine
- Russia poised to close Jewish Agency after three decades
- Diplomatic spat comes amid Kremlin standoff with US on Ukraine
Vladimir Putin
Photographer: Alexey Danichev/AFP/Getty Images
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After three decades of increasingly friendly ties, tensions over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine are triggering the worst rift in relations between Russia and Israel since the Soviet Union’s collapse.
An attempt by the Justice Ministry in Moscow to close the office of the Jewish Agency, an organization affiliated with the Israeli government that aids Jews to emigrate from Russia, is bringing matters to a head. A Moscow court held a preliminary hearing last week on the application to halt the agency’s activities that began in Russia in 1989 when then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev opened up the country.