Russia’s Putin takes Netanyahu for a ride over jailed US-Israeli woman
- The Russian leader has snubbed repeated requests from his embattled Israeli counterpart to free Naama Issachar
- The 26-year-old was sentenced to seven years in jail for transporting a small amount of hashish through a Moscow airport
The Russian leader has snubbed repeated requests from his embattled Israeli counterpart to free Naama Issachar, a 26-year-old army veteran sentenced to more than seven years in jail for transporting a small amount of hashish in her checked luggage transiting through a Moscow airport during a layover in April. She was flying back to Tel Aviv from New Delhi after a backpacking trip to India that included a course in yoga.
Putin could have provided his frequent interlocutor a boost in the polls just days before the vote, when support for his Likud party started to wane and Netanyahu flew to Putin’s summer residence in Sochi to press for Issachar’s release. At the time, Likud’s headquarters in Tel Aviv boasted a giant banner of the two men shaking hands under the slogan, “Netanyahu, in another league.”
This was an insult, done “on purpose and artificially for political reasons,” said Zvi Magen, a former Israeli ambassador to Russia who’s now a senior researcher at Tel Aviv University. Two people with knowledge of internal Kremlin deliberations said Putin himself will decide Issachar’s fate, but only after the stalemate in Israel is broken, which may require another election in January. Putin does not want to give Netanyahu “a gift” while he’s in political limbo, one of these people said.
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Andrei Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a Kremlin-founded think tank, called the Sochi rebuff “a deliberate move” to signal Putin’s “cooling” towards Netanyahu.
“Putin is hedging,” said Cliff Kupchan, chairman of risk consultancy Eurasia Group. “Netanyahu is on thin ice and Putin wants to keep his options open. His personal relationship with Bibi is no longer a political asset.”
At first, Issachar’s Russian lawyer expected her to be released with a financial slap on the wrist and time served. An American student detained this year in St. Petersburg with a larger amount of cannabis got off with the equivalent of a US$230 fine.
But soon after Issachar’s arrest, Russian prosecutors inexplicably sent the case back to police for further investigation. By late June, they’d added the far more serious charge of smuggling.
The man, a Ukrainian-born Israeli named Konstantin Bekenshtein, seemed to know a lot about Issachar’s predicament and wanted Yaffa to work with him to try to arrange a prisoner swap so both Naama and Alexei could return to their respective countries. Yaffa said she did not accept because she did not want to be dragged into a game she did not understand.
Bekenshtein told Yaffa in an email on October 10, a day before her daughter’s sentencing, that she’d likely receive between five and seven years. Once again, he offered to combine forces.
“Alexei and Naama are both victims of political games,” Bekenshtein said in an email exchange.
“At a very high level, the Russians explained very clearly to the Israeli side: ‘You’ll give us our guy and we’ll give you your girl,’” Sharansky said.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, did not respond to a request for comment on the Issachar case, and neither did Netanyahu’s office nor the US State Department. Peskov earlier told state-run RT TV that Russia is considering official Israeli requests for clemency, without elaborating.
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Issachar has only been allowed two phone calls, has not seen sunlight in seven months and fears she’ll spend years behind Russian bars, according to her mother. Issachar’s Russian lawyer has already filed an appeal, which a court usually hears within three months of a verdict. If denied, she’ll be transferred to a penal colony, possibly in a remote location.
“I beg President Putin to let her go home because she’s a happy person,” Yaffa said in an interview in the Russian lawyer’s office, tears filling her eyes. “Every day in prison is injuring her soul.”
Putin’s ties with Netanyahu have frayed over repeated Israeli air raids into neighbouring Syria, according to two Western diplomats in Moscow. Russia and Iran have helped President Bashar al-Assad’s forces regain control of most his country during a gruelling civil war.
The Defence Ministry in Moscow last year blamed Israel for Syria’s accidental downing of a Russian aircraft, killing 15 airmen, while retaliating against Israeli strikes on Iranian assets. Putin later sought to ease tensions over the incident by calling it “a chain of tragic coincidences.”
Netanyahu has also frustrated Putin by using his ties to Trump to ratchet up pressure on Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy, the diplomats said. The Israeli premier, for example, has stridently objected to Trump’s stated willingness to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rowhani.
As a result of all this, Issachar has found herself in the middle of a geopolitical “triangle” between Israel, Russia and the US, according to Yitzhak Brudy, a political scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
“As much as Bibi is afraid of Putin, he is more afraid of Trump,” Brudy said.
Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to never give up on Naama, even taking her photograph with him to Sochi, according to Yaffa. She said he’s spoken to her on three occasions, the last time in person in Israel in October.
“He hugged me and said: ‘Tell her I am going to take her out,’” Yaffa said.
Naama may not have to wait too long. Putin is expected to be Israel’s guest of honour at a ceremony in Jerusalem on Jan. 27 marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army.