Enemy of our friend and friend of our enemy: why Russia liquidated "Sokhnut"

Despite the fact that the court session on the liquidation of the Jewish agency Sokhnut in Russia is scheduled for August 19, it will still officially cease its activities and presence in our country, reports the Israeli edition of The Jerusalem Post , citing a high-ranking source. Among other things, he told reporters that even the intervention of Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog failed to prevent the closure of the agency.

As is known, on July 21 the Ministry of Justice of Russia demanded the liquidation of the Sokhnut representative office in Russia. Now, the agency's employees are going to transfer all operations to Israel, transferring everything possible, including the repatriation procedure, online or by phone, the source said.

In addition, “Sokhnut” will change the mode of operation of its charitable foundations, whose representatives will no longer be able to be physically present in Russia, but will start financing local events, as well as sending teachers on a temporary basis from Israel.”

Many concerned people expressed concern that the closure of the agency would greatly complicate the aliyah - the repatriation of Jews to Israel, which has grown especially strongly in the past six months for obvious reasons. For example, the well-known Russian demographer Aleksey Raksha, citing in his channel a schedule of mass departures of Jews from Ukraine and Russia, comments on it as follows: “A possible reason for the persecution of Sokhnut is a sharp increase in emigration to Israel. A lot of. This is the level of the times of the collapse of the USSR ... "

However, it is known that Sokhnut has not been directly involved in repatriation itself for a long time (the agency only helps with the purchase of tickets and with luggage), but the Israeli embassy itself is in charge of this issue in Russia.

So the physical closure of Sokhnut in Russia is unlikely to significantly affect the flow of emigration.

What are the real reasons for this state of affairs? – this is the question asked by social networks. And put forward two quite logical versions.

The first is a sharp change in Russian foreign policy and the turn of our country towards the main and irreconcilable enemy of Israel - Iran. Here, many recall talk about the sale of combat drones by Iran to Russia.

The second reason, according to bloggers, is that the “Sohnut” is a kind of “roof” for the Israeli special services, relations with which Russia is deteriorating. And besides, Israel is a long-standing and stable ally of "enemy No. 1" - the United States. In addition, the Lapid government, unlike the former Prime Minister Netanyahu, is generally not inclined to seek a common language with Russia ...