Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with less than a week remaining in the highest stakes election of his career, took one of his few remaining precious campaign days to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and it appeared to pay off for both leaders.

“After he milked the March 25 celebration with President Donald Trump in the White House, Netanyahu is looking toward Putin, who is still venerated by many former Soviet Union citizens who moved to Israel,” writes Ben Caspit. “In this last-minute trip, Netanyahu is again trying to convey that no one can replace him in terms of international status.”

“Netanyahu’s tete-a-tete with Putin,” adds Caspit, “his second one in less than two months and only five days before the elections, is also designed to harm a dangerous colleague of the prime minister, Avigdor Liberman. The former defense minister and Yisrael Beitenu head has been hovering around the Knesset threshold since the beginning of the campaign. Liberman will fight for every vote to earn a position to make the next prime minister’s life miserable. Netanyahu is trying to use Putin to attract the votes of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who share a birthplace with Liberman and make up a major constituency for him and his party.”

For Netanyahu, the visit was a likely boost for his campaign, and not just in wooing immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Putin also presented Netanyahu with the remains of Zachary Baumel, who was killed in Lebanon in 1982. The return of Baumel’s body carries emotional weight with Israelis, and the credit goes to Bibi, who asked Putin to help with this case two years ago.