Russia seeks to play down closure of Israel migration agency
The Kremlin has insisted its decision to shut down the agency that processes Jewish migration to Israel should not be “politicised”, amid a widening rift between the two countries over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

Last week Russia’s justice ministry requested the liquidation of the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency, a private charity closely affiliated with the Israeli government that promotes migration to Israel.

The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the ministry’s request came after the organisation, which has several offices in cities across the country, violated Russian laws.

“There are issues from the point of view of complying with Russian law,” Peskov said. “The situation should not be politicised or projected on to the entirety of Russian-Israeli relations.”

While Israel is one of the few western nations not to have imposed sanctions on Russia, and has abstained from selling weapons to Ukraine, senior Israeli officials have grown more vocal in their condemnation of Russia’s war.

In April the then foreign minister, Yair Lapid, accused Moscow of war crimes after reports emerged of the killing of civilians in the Ukrainian towns of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel.

Last month the family of Pinchas Goldschmidt, Moscow’s longtime rabbi, announced that Goldschmidt left for Israel weeks after the invasion of Ukraine after resisting Kremlin pressure to support the war.

Relations between the two countries also took a hit in May when Russia’s longtime foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, claimed that Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood” and that the “most rabid antisemites tend to be Jews”. Israel has called these comments “unforgivable”.

Lapid, who is now Israel’s caretaker prime minister, said on Sunday that the closing of the Jewish Agency would be “grave, with ramifications for [bilateral] relations”.

Amid the diplomatic spat, Israel announced on Tuesday its plans to expand humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, which for the first time will include financial support for civil aid organisations in the war-battered country, the Times of Israel reported.

Meanwhile, Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, criticised Israel’s “completely unconstructive and, most importantly, biased” stance over Ukraine. “It has been completely incomprehensible and strange to us,” she told Russian state television on Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of Russians, many highly educated and skilled, have left the country since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine more than five months ago. About 16,000 people have arrived in Israel from Russia since the start of the war, according to the Jewish Agency.

Israel’s immigration minister, Pnina Tamano-Shata, told local television that 600,000 Russians were currently eligible to move to Israel.

Kremlin critics have linked the pressure on the Jewish Agency to the growing crackdown on civil society since the start of the campaign in Ukraine. Dozens of foreign-funded organisations and charities have been shut down.

According to the Jerusalem Post, several foreign-funded Jewish organisations operating in Russia received warning letters from the Russian government last week.