"Economics outweighs politics"

"Relations between our two countries, both political and economic, have been developing very well indeed, especially in the past few years," says ambassador of the Russian Federation to Israel Sergey Yakovlev, in an interview with Globes' "G" magazine.

Yakovlev points in particular to the growing number of Russian tourists in Israel, which he believes will make Russia the number one source of tourism here in 2014, above the US. "According to official sources," says official source Yakovlev, "400 thousand Russian tourists visited Israel in 2013. But these are only the 'official' tourists, that is to say, those who came purely for the purposes of tourism. If you also take into account Russians who came to Israel on business trips, artists who came to perform, sportspeople and others, the estimate rises to 600 thousand."

There is however one field that Russian companies have been trying to enter without success for a long time, and that is natural gas exploration and production. Gazprom, for example, expressed interest in becoming a partner in the Leviathan reserve, one of the most important in the Mediterranean Sea (the main license holders are Yitzhak Tshuva, through Delek Drilling and Avner, and US company Noble Energy), but in the end made no formal proposal.

"Representatives of our companies have held bilateral meetings with your attaché in Houston," says Yakovlev, "but so far we have seen no results on the ground." Rumor has it that the Americans are not exactly enthusiastic about you coming into the gas market.

"The Americans will not welcome Russian involvement in gas in Israel, but this is economics, not politics. A great deal depends on your political leadership. If someone tries to impose barriers on you, you have to decide whether to pay more, or to obtain a better contract and pay less. I think that the economic motives outweigh everything else. We have sufficient experience in this industry, and if Israel wants, this could be an opening to fruitful collaboration."

How many Israelis currently work in Russia?

"According to our estimates, there are about a hundred thousand Israelis working in Russia in various areas - agriculture, high-tech, industry, aviation, and so on. The Israeli ambassador to Russia told me that the number grows year by year. Only a few families among them have left Israel permanently."

One person who went in the opposite direction and left Russia, probably for good, is one of Yakovlev's neighbors in Herzliya Pituah, Leonid Nevzlin. "He's my neighbor, but I have never seen him, not even once," Yakovlev says. "I travel by car from place to place, and I presume that he does the same."

I daresay you won't be inviting him to visit the embassy.

"No. I'm prepared to invite him to Russia. He's wanted there by the police (Nevzlin was convicted of attempted murder, S.L.). We have approached the Israeli authorities about Mr. Nevzlin, but the response was absolutely clear: he is an Israeli citizen (and so will not be extradited to Russia; the State Attorney and the Supreme Court found that the extradition request was filed on the basis of evidence that is not acceptable in Israel S.L.). If he is innocent, why should he not go to Moscow to talk to the State Prosecutor and stand trial?"

He will say that he will not be given a fair trial in Russia.

"Believe me, if a person is innocent, they have nothing to fear."

What do you have to say about Western support for the current government in Kiev?

"I don't understand Europe. Among the current Ukrainian leadership there are many who hold neo-Nazi views, and Europe suffered a great deal in the Hitler period, so how can it now support people with such views?

So the West doesn't understand the situation there?

"Absolutely right. We are Slavs, we understand the Ukrainians much better than the Americans and Europeans do; but no-one listens to us."

Let's talk about the situation in Syria. President Putin had some success in talking to Assad, but the claim is that, despite everything, the Syrian president continues to use chemical weapons against the rebels.

"I don't think so. This is propaganda. I served for five years in Syria, in the period of Assad's father. I traveled there a lot. I got to know many people of various religions - Christians, Muslims, Alawi, Druse - and I was completely sure that they lived in peace amid mutual understanding. I remember how my wife and I visited a small village in the mountains, not far from Latakia. A church and a mosque stood there a hundred meters apart. Our host was a Syrian Christian who had studied in Russia. We sat in a small courtyard, he was making some kind of shishlik, and there was a shortage of salt in the house. So his father went to the Muslim neighbor Muhammad to fetch some salt, came back with Muhammad, and we drank Arak together. When I heard that people of different religions there had started to fight one another, I couldn't believe it. In my opinion, it was foreign mercenaries that incited the disturbances, not the Syrians, and not the Assad regime."

So here too, the West doesn't understand what is really going on?

"Yes. Our friends the Americans have forgotten the 'democratization' that swept the Arab world a few years ago. Would you call what is happening now in Libya democratization? In Egypt? What's happening in Syria? I think that this is not good democratization. This is bloodthirsty democratization. I think that when the Syrians destroy their chemical weapons, everyone will be happy, but what comes next?

"I understand that Assad and his army are fighting for their lives. But what are the others fighting for? No-one knows, and they are beyond any influence of the international community and do what they like. That can't continue."

This is an extract from an interview in "G" magazine.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 8, 2014

"Economics outweighs politics"

Russian ambassador Sergey Yakovlev thinks Israel should welcome Gazprom, and that the West misunderstands Syria.