The Russian foreign ministry said on Thursday an Israeli diplomat had left the country after being detained by police for "unlawful activities", Interfax news agency reported. "The first secretary of the Israeli embassy in Moscow, Shmuel Polishok, was detained red-handed in Moscow on September 24," Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said, without elaborating.
"He has already left for home." An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, confirmed in Jerusalem that Polishok had left Russia over what he described only as "an administrative matter". Palmor said Polishok "has not been declared persona non grata" and that Israel hoped the issue would be sorted out very soon. Israel's Maariv newspaper reported that the diplomat had been forced to leave the country after being questioned by Russian intelligence agents on suspicion of spying.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly visited Moscow last month, a trip Israeli media have speculated was intended to voice concern about the possible sale of Russian anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. That visit followed the interception by Russian warships of a cargo ship off the coast of west Africa in August, which reports said Israel had detected was carrying advanced S-300 missiles to Iran. Russia has denied those reports.