OREANDA-NEWS. Over the past year, Israel received about 6 thousand refusals to enter the country for Russians, some of these refusals are unreasonable. The ambassador of Russia to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, told the Russian media about this.

The embassy takes control of cases of unlawful refusal and discusses this issue with Israeli authorities, Viktorov pointed out. Russia and the Israeli side have developed an understanding that the current situation is “abnormal and requires joint actions to correct it”, he said. “This is a violation of the rights of citizens, about undermining the economic basis of tourism in our relations, our cultural, educational, scientific and other ties. I hope that by joint efforts it will be possible to reverse the unfavorable trend and solve the existing problems”, the diplomat explained.

To resolve the situation, Russia and Israel intend to continue consultations at the level of consular departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and law enforcement agencies, Anatoly Viktorov assured.

As the Israeli newspaper reported, from 2009 to 2015, 17 Russians applied for refugee status in Israel, but this figure began to increase after 2017, when more than 600 Russian citizens sought asylum. As another newspaper wrote, from 2015 about 40 thousand people emigrated to Israel - this is only 4 thousand less than the total emigration from Russia from 2005 to 2015.