In 2019, an Israeli backpacker named Naama Issachar was arrested at the Moscow airport, en route home from India, for possession of a modest amount of marijuana. She was sentenced to over seven years in jail, but was released in January after strenuous Israeli diplomacy. But of course Vladimir Putin demanded, and received, something in return. Shay Attias writes:
After decades of argument, [Putin] finally claimed Russian ownership of the Alexander Courtyard in Jerusalem, near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The dispute over the courtyard began in 1917. In May 1948, the Soviet Union appointed a “Russian property-affairs commissioner” who “did everything possible to transfer this property [namely, the Alexander Courtyard] to the Soviet Union.”
Putin has dramatically upgraded the status of the Russian Orthodox Church during his tenure as national leader. In almost every major speech, he has made sure not only to mention the Church but to support its faith narratives. . . . He has regularly used the language of the Church and quoted from the Russian Bible, sometimes even using it to justify his foreign-policy steps.
Russia still enjoys a high degree of influence in formerly Soviet areas, and Putin understands that . . . Russian churches in Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia can all be used to boost that influence. As Putin just showed in Jerusalem, he is fully capable of using the Church to enhance Russian prestige.
In January, . . . Putin presented the Russian Orthodox Church with a precious diamond: the Alexander Courtyard. . . . The granting of sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem to a foreign power is a significant concession for Israel. Russian cultural and military imperialism are here to stay, and Putin is eager to expand them further.
Read more on BESA Center: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/putin-religion-israel/