At the beginning of the week he was home again, at least Roman Abramovich was seen in Tel Aviv, at the airport. But what does “at home” mean for a multi-billionaire who owns luxury real estate all over the world and has three citizenships: Russian, Portuguese and Israeli. Abramovich is sometimes here, sometimes there. It is quite possible, however, that Israel, his adopted country, will become more important to him. In contrast to the EU and its western partners, Israel has so far not imposed any sanctions on Russia and oligarchs close to Putin.
Not only Abramowitsch with his Gulfstream has been at Tel Aviv Airport in the past few days G650 been sighted. Israeli media reports that at least 14 private planes have landed in Israel from Moscow since the start of the Ukraine war. There is a suspicion that some who are threatened with confiscation of their belongings in Europe or the USA are looking for a safe haven in Israel. And this suspicion is now also being entertained in Washington.
All reports and background information on the war in Ukraine – in the SZ in the morning and in the SZ in the evening. Our Messages–Newsletter brings you up to date twice a day. Free registration at sz.de/morgenabend. In our news app (download here) you can also subscribe to the news newsletter or our breaking news as a push message.
Victoria Nuland, US Deputy Secretary of State, has already sent a stern warning to Jerusalem. In an interview with an Israeli TV channel, she, the US and all of its allies – including Israel! – would have to put the Moscow regime and the oligarchs under extreme pressure. “You don’t want to be the last resort for the dirty money fueling Putin’s war,” she said.
Abramovich is only the most prominent among several Russian oligarchs linked to Israel through their Jewish roots. He has held Israeli citizenship since 2018, just after the first difficulties with the extension of his visa for the UK arose. He became Israeli in no time, based on the law that guarantees citizenship to anyone with a Jewish parent or grandparent. The welcome package includes not only the Israeli passport, but also a ten-year tax exemption for income earned abroad. In addition, one does not have to disclose its sources.
Israel maneuvers between the fronts
From the start, Abramovich showed his gratitude in Israel for so much trust and generosity. He made himself at home in Tel Aviv and in a villa in nearby Herzliya. He invested heavily in the Israeli start-up scene. And above all, he made himself popular as a benefactor. He is reported to have donated around $500 million to Israeli and Jewish institutions in recent years. This includes hospitals, cultural institutions and a right-wing settler organization, to which 100 million dollars are said to have flowed alone. Most recently, a double-digit million donation to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem was announced at the end of February.
How well this money was invested was shown when shortly afterwards the West imposed the first sanctions because of Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Immediately, the heads of influential Israeli organizations, including Yad Vashem, sent a letter to the US ambassador to Israel asking that Abramovich, as a benefactor to the Jewish world, be exempted from such punishments. But that did not go down well in the West – Yad Vashem has since announced that cooperation with Abramovich has been “suspended”.
Israel’s government is still a long way from such clarity. There is a polyphony that almost seems like a strategy to allow Israel to maneuver between the fronts. First, there is Treasury Secretary Avigdor Lieberman, one of more than a million Israelis who have immigrated from the former Soviet Union since the 1990s. “We are not joining any sanctions,” he said. “We will try to cooperate with the world within the framework of Israel’s interests.”
And there is Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. He is the man in the middle, who has also offered himself internationally as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine. He obviously hopes, as an honest broker, to avoid the decision to join the sanctions. Secretary of State Jair Lapid, in turn, is trying to placate Washington and the other partners with an assurance: “Israel will not be the route by which sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and other Western countries will be circumvented.”
In order to clarify how Israel should deal with the sanctions, an interministerial working group was set up in Jerusalem. Incidentally, Roman Abramovich stayed in Israel only briefly at the beginning of the week. After just one night, his private jet took off again for Istanbul. From there, it is said, he flew on to Moscow.