Report: Israeli traveler was kept in Russian jail extra day for Netanyahu photo op

After Israeli-American Naama Issachar was jailed in Russia for 10 months, her eventual release in 2020 was delayed by 24 hours so that then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu could get a photo op with the young woman as she gained her freedom, according to an episode of the “Zman Emet” investigative reporting program aired Tuesday on the Kan public broadcaster.

Issachar, who was 26 years old at the time, received a seven-year prison sentence in Moscow on drug smuggling charges in 2019 after 10 grams of marijuana were found in her bags during a stopover on her way from India. She was released in January 2020 after serving 10 months, receiving a pardon from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Issachar’s release came two months before the March 2020 elections, the second national election in a few months after Netanyahu failed to form a government following September 2019 polls.

According to “Zman Emet,” Issachar’s release was pushed off by a day so Netanyahu could greet her in Moscow. Throughout the election campaign, Netanyahu had touted his close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Daniel Kogan, a communications consultant hired by Issachar’s family to manage the campaign for her release, told the program that after Putin issued his pardon, Issachar’s mother Yaffa was notified by Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar that “your daughter is coming out of the gates now,” whereupon Yaffa packed a bag and went to the prison.

“So she’s sitting in front of the prison gates waiting. An hour, two hours, three, four, and nothing,” Kogan told “Zman Emet.” After six hours, Kogan said, she gave up, only later realizing that her daughter’s release had been postponed.

“She was extremely disappointed. She said she’d been sure she would get Naama back,” Kogan said. “And then, crazy media pushes were sent out that Israeli prime minister Netanyahu would land in Moscow and bring Naama home.”

Netanyahu, who was visiting the US at the time, made an abrupt change in schedule to fly to Moscow, where he met Issachar. The official reason was defined as “updating Putin on regional developments,” while the actual reason, according to “Zmat Emet,” was obtaining a photo with the released Israeli for his election campaign.

“Zman Emet” did not provide further confirmation that the delay was caused for Netanyahu’s benefit.

The harsh sentence for what is widely considered a minor offense was seen as a Russian attempt to use Issachar to secure the release of Aleksey Burkov, a Russian hacker who ran a sophisticated clearinghouse for international cybercriminals and was arrested in Israel in 2015. He spent several years in custody while the Russian government fought his extradition to the US and filed its own extradition request.

The “Zman Emet” episode on Tuesday offered more evidence to support the notion that Issachar was used by Russia as a bargaining chip in its efforts to prevent Burkov’s extradition to the US, as was suggested by Israeli officials at the time.

Israel eventually extradited Burkov to the US in November 2019 over Russia’s objections.

“Zman Emet” revealed for the first time that Russia intensified its private rhetoric on Issachar after Burkov’s extradition, with Russia’s Federal Security Service notifying Israeli officials that “Israel will not get to see Naama Issachar again, forget she ever existed.”

Eventually, in a controversial deal that involved the transfer of ownership of the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky in Jerusalem’s Old City to the Kremlin and a visit by Putin to Israel and his participation in the 2020 World Holocaust Forum in Yad Vashem, Netanyahu won Issachar’s release.

After her return, Issachar and her family were reportedly reprimanded by an aide to the premier after she failed to mention him in a post thanking those who campaigned for her release.

Today, Issachar lives in the US and refrains from giving interviews about the political aspects of her release.