Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman has failed in his efforts to soften restrictions on transferring the money of Israelis from banks in Russia to Israel. At a high-level meeting of several directors of big Israeli banks, supervisors of banks at the Bank of Israel and Finance Ministry representatives, it was decided that acceding to Liberman’s request could appear like Israel is circumventing international sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. 

The disagreement on this issue stems from the fact that there is no Israeli position paper that prohibits or allows the transfer of funds except for general adherence to international sanctions. What Liberman asked was to examine the treatment of money in financial institutions that are not under sanctions.

The money in question is the pensions of some 57,000 Russian pensioners who immigrated to Israel, and receive an average monthly pension of 300 Israeli shekels ($89) from the Russian government. In addition, some 30,000 Jews have immigrated from Russia in recent months, many of them because of the war, and they wish to transfer their money from accounts in Russia to Israel. Another group is composed of Israeli businessmen who are not personally under sanctions but have accounts and investments in Russia.

Russian authorities have limited anyone leaving Russia to withdrawing only $10,000 in cash when exiting the country. But those who have reached Israel have encountered refusal by Israeli banks to deposit the funds.