The act of shutting down the Pure Jewish Body is legal, don’t politicize it

MOSCOW – The Kremlin says Russia’s move to shut down the agency that processes Jewish immigration to Israel should not be “politicised”. Moscow calls it a purely legal matter.

“The situation should not be politicized or projected onto the overall Russian-Israeli relationship,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday (26/7/2022).

In a surprise move, a Moscow court said last week that the Ministry of Justice had requested the “dissolution” of the Jewish Agency for unspecified violations of the law.

“There are problems from the point of view of compliance with Russian law,” Peskov said.

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“This situation must be treated with extreme caution,” he said, but gave no further details.

Analysts say the move could be a warning shot from the Kremlin against Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.

Currently Lapid has taken a tougher rhetorical line on the Ukrainian conflict than his predecessor.

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This is also interpreted as an effort to slow down the brain drain from Russia.

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