The Israeli military attaché to Russia has come under suspicion of espionage and was expelled from the country, Ynet reports.
Military Attaché Colonel Vadim Leiderman has since been interrogated by Israeli security officials. He maintains that the allegations are baseless and false, and that the entire incident stems from a misunderstanding.
The IDF and the Defense Ministry said that the suspicions have been investigated and found to be untrue.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman are being kept abreast of any development in the case.
The last few days have seen hectic efforts by Israel to appease Moscow and stop the already grave diplomatic incident from escalating further, but the Russians seem adamant to exhaust all the legal measures at their disposal against the officer.
Military attachés hold pivotal roles in Israeli missions worldwide. The military attaché represents Israel in all matters pertaining to security and its security interests, serves and the liaison between the IDF and the hosting nation’s armed forces, represents the Israeli Military Industries, and is the ambassador’s security advisor.
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3 Responses
What does that mean? The IDF have investigated and came to the conclusion that the allegations are untrue? And the Russians are supposed to believe that?!?
Normally, when a diplomat is expelled and the country that s/he represents considers it unjustified, they will retaliate by expelling an equivalent diplomat of the other country. So in this case, Israel would expel the Russian military attache from Tel Aviv. This is the normal, expected diplomatic response. We’ll see if Israel has the backbone to do this.
Hmmm… Russia supports Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, and every other rogue regime out there.
Medvedev has expressed his hope that there will be a Phalistinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.
Putin is a KGB thug.
And now this…