Is Russia trying to lower the flames surrounding the agency crisis? A political official who spoke to "Israel Hayom" referred to the conversation held yesterday (Tuesday) between President Yitzhak Herzog and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and to the statement issued by the Russians after the conversation, saying that "although it is still very early to determine how the crisis will end, the wording of the Kremlin's statement included wording non-trivial positives".
The source meant the sympathetic mention of the Jews as an important part of the Russian heritage and culture, in addition to the mention of their part in the Red Army's victory over the Nazis in World War II.
"Against the background of the war in Ukraine, where Putin is trying to paint the other side as a neo-Nazi, it can be assumed that this mention is not accidental and that it has meaning, even though it cannot be determined right now that the crisis is on the way to a solution."
The source also said that from the point of view of the Russians, the very fact that President Herzog initiated a conversation with Putin when Moscow is diplomatically isolated almost all over the world is an achievement in itself, which is even stronger in view of the fact that the two leaders did not discuss during their conversation the issue of the war with Ukraine.
The source strongly denied the report published today that the agency may leave Russia on its own initiative, and said that "a marathon meeting of the agency's senior officials was held in which we discussed the possible scenarios and our responses, but none of them included the closure of the agency's activities in Russia on our initiative."
As a reminder, on August 19 a trial against the Jewish Agency is scheduled to open in Moscow, after the Russian Ministry of Justice claimed that it was illegally collecting information on Russian citizens.
If the agency is found guilty, it could lose the right to operate in Russia and be forced to close its operations there.
Putin and Herzog did not discuss the crisis, photo: E.
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In Israel they claim that the information that the agency collects is trivial, and that these are phone numbers, email addresses and similar items of Jews who wish to immigrate to Israel or participate in the activities of the agency.
An Israeli delegation that consisted mainly of lawyers and met with Russian Ministry of Justice officials proposed several technical solutions to ensure that the agency would meet all the requirements of Russian law, but did not receive a clear answer to its proposals.
The working assumption in Israel is that this is an initiated political crisis that can only be resolved at the highest levels, and not a legal crisis as the Russians claim.
The agency's activity in Russia has always received a critical look due to the claim that it encourages brain drain from the country, but it is not clear what caused the Russians to blow up the matter just now.
The prevailing estimates are that this is due to dissatisfaction with Israel's position in relation to the war in Ukraine, displeasure with the scope of the IDF's activities in Syria, frustration with the delay in transferring the Alexander Court complex in Jerusalem to Russian ownership, or a combination of all or some of these factors.
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