The State of Israel is represented in the Russian Federation through an embassy in Moscow and a consulate-general in Saint Petersburg. Russia is represented in Israel through an embassy in Tel Aviv and a consulate in Haifa. Russia is a member of the Quartet on the Middle East. For many years, Israel was a haven for Russian Jews. This was especially the case during the aliyah from the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1990s.
Israel and the Soviet Union, Russia's predecessor state, were on opposing sides during the Cold War. However, the relationship between Israel and Russia has improved significantly since the early 2000s, with the election of the more pro-Israel Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and the election of the more pro-Russia Israeli leader Ariel Sharon.The Maturing of Israeli-Russian Relations Anna Borshchevskaya, inFocus Quarterly, Spring 2016. Putin has had a close relationship with long-serving Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Following the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war, relations took a downturn during Yair Lapid's tenure as Prime Minister of Israel. Relations improved after Netanyahu's return as prime minister, although cooler than they were before the war. Unlike many Western countries, Israel has maintained relations with the Kremlin, refused to impose sanctions against Russia, and rejected calls to send military aid to Ukraine. Relations became strained during the Gaza war. However, Russia continued to be Israel's biggest supplier of fuel and one of its biggest suppliers of crude oil during the Gaza war. While Russia condemned Israeli and American attacks on Iran in 2025 and 2026, it did not send military aid to Iran during the Twelve-Day War.
The Russian language is the third-most widely spoken first language in Israel after Hebrew and Arabic; Israel has the third-largest number of Russian speakers outside of the post-Soviet states and the highest as a proportion of the total population; in 2017 it was estimated that 1.5 million Israelis could speak Russian, which would amount to 17.25% of Israel's population.К визиту Нетаньяху: что Россия может получить от экономики Израиля Алексей Голубович, Forbes Russia, 09.03.2017, Putin Pledges To Protect All Ethnic Russians Anywhere, So, Where Are They? By Robert Coalson for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 10 April 2014. Over 100,000 Israeli citizens live in Russia,[100,000 Former Soviet Jews In Israel Return To Russia, By Michael Mainville, The Toronto Star] with 80,000 of them living in Moscow,Russian-born Israelis Chase Capitalist Dreams to Moscow Ofer Matan 21 February 2014, Haaretz while hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens live in Israel.
History Soviet Union
With the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Joseph Stalin reversed his long-standing opposition to Zionism and tried to mobilize worldwide Jewish support for the Soviet war effort. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was set up in Moscow. Many thousands of Jewish refugees fled the Nazis and entered the Soviet Union during the war, where they reinvigorated Jewish religious activities and opened new synagogues. From late 1944, Stalin adopted an openly pro-Zionist foreign policy apparently in the belief that the new country would be socialist and would speed the decline of British influence in the Middle East.Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (1987) p.527
In May 1947, Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko told the United Nations that the Soviets supported the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. The Soviet Union and its satellite states voted in November 1947 for the UN Partition Plan for Palestine.See UN General Assembly Resolution 181 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Soviet Union provided diplomatic support for the founding of Israel and supported its admission to the UN. On 17 May 1948, three days after Israel declared its independence, the Soviets officially recognized Israel.Philip Marshall Brown, "The Recognition of Israel," The American Journal of International Law 42#3 (1948) pp. 620–627 online
Golda Meir was appointed Israel's ambassador to the Soviet Union; her term began on 2 September 1948 and ended in March 1949. She attended Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services at the Moscow Choral Synagogue.Yossi Goldstein, "Doomed to Fail: Golda Meir's Mission to Moscow (Part 1)", The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs Vol. 5 No. 3 (September 2011), pg. 131 However, after Israel had been established, Stalin reduced his support, arrested the leaders of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, and launched attacks on Soviet Jews.Gabriel Gorodetsky, "The Soviet Union's role in the creation of the state of Israel." Journal of Israeli History 22.1 (2003): 4–20.
Soviet-Israeli relations worsened from 1949 to 1952, but the USSR still gave some diplomatic support to Israel and remained mostly neutral in the Arab-Israeli dispute until 1954. The USSR adopted a clear position of support for the Arab states against Israel beginning in 1955.
Relations were severed by the Soviet government in June 1967 in protest of Israeli policy during the Six-Day War and immediately afterward. The Soviet Union supported Israel's Arab enemies with arms and training, and Soviet forces were deployed to Egypt during the War of Attrition in which they repeatedly engaged Israeli forces.
After the Soviets cut off diplomatic relations with Israel due to the Six-Day War, the Dutch embassy in Moscow established an Israel interests' section, which represented Israel in the Soviet Union until diplomatic relations were re-established in October 1991."They did not dwell alone. The emigration from the Soviet Union. 1967 – 1990. During the representation of Israeli Interests by the Netherlands Embassy in Moscow." Summary of dissertation at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen by Petrus Buwalda. Groningen, 1996.
1990s
The Soviet Union resumed diplomatic relations with Israel on 18 October 1991, towards the end of Glasnost and Perestroika. The journalist Alexander Bovin became the first Soviet ambassador to Israel in 24 years. After the Soviet Union collapsed two months later, he continued to serve as Russia's ambassador to Israel.
The end of the Soviet Union caused massive immigration wave of Jews from the ex-Soviet states. Demand from the new immigrants caused many Russian-language newspapers to appear, and with the development of the multichannel television in Israel during the 1990s, many Russian channels started being rebroadcast in Israel. In November 2002, a new Israeli-Russian channel, Israel Plus, emerged.
On 19 October 1999, Defence Minister of China, General Chi Haotian, after meeting with Syrian defense minister Mustafa Tlass in Damascus, Syria, to discuss expanding military ties between Syria and China, flew to Israel and met with Ehud Barak, the prime minister and Defence Minister of Israel, where they discussed military relations. Among the military arrangements was a $1 billion Israeli-Russian sale of military aircraft to China, which were to be jointly produced by Russia and Israel."China defense minister visits Israel". World Tribune. Thursday, 21 October 1999.
In 1999, as foreign minister, Ariel Sharon began to court more friendly relations with Russia as a result of the large-scale immigration of Russian-speakers to Israel: "The Russian vote will decide the outcome of the [Israeli] election".Little Russia Monday 3 May 1999, The Guardian
Relations between Israel and Russia were improved by Israeli opposition to the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, as well as Israeli support for IMF loans to Russia. Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov subsequently said that if he was an Israeli, he would vote for incumbent prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the 1999 Israeli general election.
2000s
The relationship between Israel and Russia substantially began to improve only in 2000, with the election of the more pro-Israel Vladimir Putin, and in 2001, with election of the more pro-Russian Ariel Sharon, who described Putin as "a true friend of Israel". In 2005, Vladimir Putin visited Jerusalem.
In 2006, Israeli troops found evidence of Russian made Kornet-E and Metis-M anti-tank systems in Hezbollah's possession in southern Lebanon. In 2007, in response to accusations that it was supplying terrorist groups with weapons, Russia said it was conducting inspections of Syrian weapons storage facilities to prevent the weapons from reaching unintended customers. This strained the already-deteriorating relations between Russia and Israel. In the same year, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, visiting as part of a government delegation, said that he was concerned particularly about the economic situation for the more than one million Russians living in Israel, and that "Russia will never allow any kind of violence against Israel".Владимир Жириновский: я – не "сын юриста". Рассказ об отце время публикации: 25 июня 2006 г, Newsru.co.ilЖириновский в Израиле говорил об антисемитизме на Украине 25 февраля 2014 г., 21:14, NewsRU.co.il
Russia planned to sell advanced surface-to-air missiles to neighboring countries, and condemned Israel's actions in the Gaza War.Israel Kills at least 225 and wounded 700 People in Gaza, 28 December 2008 Sunday 2:5 .Turkishweekly.net. Retrieved on 8 January 2009.Reuters AlertNet – Russia asks Israel to end Gaza attacks, let in aid .Alertnet.org. Retrieved on 8 January 2009. Russia also sent 60 tons of tent, medicines, food and other humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
2010s In 2011, Putin said: "Israel is, in fact, a special state to us. It is practically a Russian-speaking country. Israel is one of the few foreign countries that can be called Russian-speaking. It's apparent that more than half of the population speaks Russian". Putin additionally claimed that Israel could be considered part of the Russian cultural world, and contended that "songs which are considered to be national Israeli songs in Israel are in fact Russian national songs". He further stated that he regarded Russian-speaking Israeli citizens as his compatriots and part of the 'Russian world'.DIASPORA & CITIZENSHIP, by Claire Sutherland, Elena Barabantseva, (Routledge 2013), page 88 In 2012, Vladimir Putin once again visited Jerusalem.
In April 2014, Israel took a neutral stance on the Russian annexation of Crimea at the United Nations, angering U.S. State Department and White House officials. During Operation Protective Edge in 2014, Putin stated that "I support Israel's battle that is intended to keep its citizens protected". In August, Russia began increasing fruit imports from Israel, after banning food imports from the EU, Norway, United States, Canada and Australia. About two months later India and Israel started to export meat to Russia.
Relations between Israel and Russia further improved after the Russian military intervention in Syria in September 2015. From then until July 2018, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Putin met a total of nine times. In October 2015, Israel and Russia held meetings to coordinate over Syria, and avoid accidentally clashing or scrambling each other's communications while operating over the country.Netanyahu says ties with Russia good, doesn't join criticism of Syria attacks i24 News, 4 October 2015.Russia-Israel Military Coordination Talks to Open Tuesday Reuters, 6 October 2015.