Photo: Kirill Naumenko / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
TEL AVIV – The Russian military plane that landed at Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday night reportedly carried senior Russian officials, including the head of Russia’s military intelligence agency, who came to Israel at the request of the United States, according to an unnamed foreign source cited in a report on Monday. The claim is unconfirmed.
The source said the visit came ahead of a peace summit the United States is hosting in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, with senior officials from Russia and Ukraine expected to attend. The Tupolev Tu-154 left a Russian air force base near Moscow, landed in Israel at about 9 p.m. Sunday and flew on to Abu Dhabi on Monday afternoon, per the report. Our earlier article covered the landing.
The Israeli military spokesman, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Russian embassy in Israel declined to comment. Why the plane came to Israel and who was aboard remain officially unexplained.
Why it matters: a flight of this kind from Russia to Israel is unusual, and the reported link to a US-hosted Russia-Ukraine meeting would put Israel in a role on that track. Still unknown: whether any meetings took place in Israel, whether any agreements were reached, and who exactly was on board.
Archival photo: a Russian Air Force Tu-154 at Chkalovsky in 2009. It is not a picture of Sunday’s flight.
JBizNews Desk | Tel Aviv
© JBizNews.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution is strictly prohibited.
