Russia, Israel navigate narrow straits in potentially turbulent waters

A lot of speculation has arisen over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting in Moscow April 21 with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The last time the two leaders met was Nov. 30. Since then, both have accumulated enough issues to discuss in person, while recent regional developments added the flavor of urgency to the talks. 

There were numerous grounds for the speculation: The meeting came three days after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visited Russia; many observers are alarmed by reports in recent weeks of potential clashes between Russian forces and Israeli aircraft; and the Israeli government had its first recent field session in the Golan Heights.

Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, denied allegations in the Israeli press that the meeting focused on incidents between Russian and Israeli military planes. The reports were “far from what’s really happening,” Peskov said. Yet Netanyahu’s description of the visit’s objectives — “strengthening coordination … in the security area, so as to avoid mistakes, misunderstandings or in­cidents” — suggests the problem wasn’t left out of the discussion entirely.

Indeed, since the beginning of the Russian mission in Syria, Moscow and Tel Aviv have showcased their successful coordination of military flights there. Even though Russian airplanes’ maneuvers technically violated Israeli airspace repeatedly, Tel Aviv didn’t perceive them as threatening and thus wasn’t prone to taking action similar to that of Ankara, which shot down a Russian fighter jet in November.