Shin Bet removes Russian-born Israeli journalist from PM’s plane at last minute

Russian-born Israeli freelance journalist Nick Kolyohin was removed by Shin Bet agents from the Wing of Zion plane Tuesday morning after boarding the aircraft for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s flight to Washington.

Kolyohin, who had been scheduled to cover Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Donald Trump for three Russian television channels, said he originally received approval from the Prime Minister’s Office to join the flight along with a slate of other journalists.

“If there are checks, do them in advance. Why at the last minute, and why without an explanation?” he told Channel 12 news.

Unlike Netanyahu’s two most recent trips to the United States, reporters were allowed this time to travel aboard the prime minister’s plane, the Wing of Zion. But after Kolyohin boarded the media section with about 10 other journalists and stowed his bags, he told AFP, Shin Bet agents approached him and asked him to disembark.

He said the Shin Bet officers informed him that he was removed because his “connections” needed to be verified.

Along with freelancing for Russian television — including blacklisted state-controlled outlet RT — Kolyohin works as a contributor for the right-wing US TV station Newsmax as well as the Chinese state news agency Xinhua, which has sparked suspicion from Hebrew media in recent years over the use of sponsored content and foreign political or state affiliations.

The Seventh Eye media watchdog has accused Kolyohin — who previously worked for Israel’s Channel 10 TV station (now Channel 13) — of being paid to promote Russian interests, which he has vehemently denied. Kolyohin told Channel 12 that such allegations amount to defamation and that he is currently pursuing a civil legal process on the matter.

The Shin Bet said in a statement: “In accordance with the agency’s mission and duties under the law, the agency is responsible, among other things, for the security of the prime minister. Within this framework, decisions are made in order to reduce risk to the prime minister and to the information in his surroundings. By their nature, it is not possible to comment on the reasons underlying specific decisions.”

Kolyohin, 42, was born in Moscow and moved to Israel at the age of nine, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, during a major wave of Soviet Jewish immigration.

He told AFP he served in the Israel Defense Forces and later worked for a government agency in the Prime Minister’s Office in 2011–2012, during one of Netanyahu’s earlier terms.

Today, he says, he holds only Israeli citizenship.