Januyar 6, 2005
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent
Haaretz
A "highly classified problem" was the real reason for the special meeting on the crisis in Israel's relations with Russia that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened earlier this week, government sources told Haaretz.
The sources said that the information given to the media after the meeting - that Israel is worried by recent statements of an anti-Semitic nature made by President Vladimir Putin - was partial and tendentious, and was aimed at concealing the real reason for the crisis, which Sharon insisted be kept secret.
Participants at the meeting included Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, the heads of the intelligence agencies, and a few senior civil servants.
Sharon initially enjoyed a good relationship with Putin, but on his last visit to Russia in November 2003 he failed to persuade the president to drop his idea of getting the United Nations Security Council to adopt the road map peace plan.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/523845.html