Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and expressed his sympathy for Israeli President Moshe Katsav, who faces charges of serial rape. Putin also offered the services of Roman Abramovich in moving the court out of the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem. Olmert passed on that offer of fraternal aid, however, and Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov noted with shock hints of a new arms race.
The Israelis arrives in a large delegation of negotiators and journalists. At first there was no enough room behind the table at the Kremlin for Israeli Ambassador to Russia Arkady Mil-Man, who was insistently requesting to participate in the negotiations, if only as a translator. Finally the Russians consented to put him on the list of translators. But when everyone was seated at the table and Russian President Vladimir Putin asked them to introduce themselves, Mil-Man confounded protocol by saying that he was the Israeli ambassador and not a translator. Ambassadors' participation was not foreseen and the Russian ambassador to Israel had not even come back to Moscow. The others at the table looked offended at the need to introduce themselves publicly.
The Russian president, the only person at the table who did not introduce himself in the end, began his short presentation with "Shalom!" and warm recollection of former prime minister Ariel Sharon. Olmert responded by saying that Sharon placed a high value on his relations with Putin and recalled their last meeting, in Jerusalem a year and a half ago. "I remember the last meeting when you met with Mr. Sharon," he said. "I was present at the dinner that the Israeli Prime Minister held in your honor. I remember the important things that you said to us then about the nature of relations between Russia and Israel and about your personal commitment to ensuring that Russia's relations with the countries of the Middle East would never again be one-sided. I very much value your position on this issue." After that, the press was ushered out, and the president apparently thought the microphones had been turned off. "Say hi to your president," Putin said. "He turned out to be quite a powerful person! Raped ten women! We're all amazed. We all envy him!"
Sometimes you just don't believe your ears. Putin was obviously expressing support for Olmert, who had been put in a difficult position by the Israeli president's alleged actions.
The negotiations lasted three hours behind closed doors and turned-off microphones. According to information obtained by Kommersant, the Russian side raised the question of Russian arms passing from Syrian possession to the hands of Hezbollah. They had Russian-made thermal imaging devices on their launchers, and Kornet-E, Konkurs-M, Fagot, Metis-M and RPG-29 antitank systems, causing the Israelis unexpectedly heavy losses in the recent war. Russian negotiators, according to a high-placed source, explained that they came into Hezbollah's possession through the third party of unethical Syrian officers during Syria's chaotic withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005.
The most important thing, the source continued, was that the Russians showed the Israelis that Hezbollah has even more American weapons, and even Israeli.
[...]At the press conference after the negotiations, Olmert spoke of his concern over Iran. "We do not have the privilege of being able to afford to let a country like Iran possess non-conventional weapons. Israel will never accept such a situation. If the leader of a country like Iran says publicly that he seeks to annihilate our country, we cannot prepare a response scenario but must prevent this from ever happening," Olmert stated ominously.
