Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Vladimir Putin yesterday evening to expressed his condolences over the death of the 15 servicemen aboard the Il-20 aircraft shot down in Syria on September 17. With respect to a thorough investigation, Netanyahu promised to provide detailed information on the activities of the Israeli Air Force over Syrian territory on that day, which will be delivered soon to Moscow by the Israeli Air Force commander. In response, Putin noted that operations of this nature by the Israeli Air Force are in violation of Syria's sovereignty. In this particular case, Russian-Israeli agreements on preventing dangerous incidents had not been observed either, and that resulted in the Russian aircraft coming under Syrian air defence fire.
Shortly before Netanyahu's call to the Kremlin, the chairman of Russia’s Federation Council Commission on Information Policy, Alexei Pushkov, spoke rather harshly of Israel's actions. He said that in the first place there were several versions of the disaster: "There was a version that it was the French, a version that it was a technical glitch on the plane, a version that it was Syrian air defense, and a version that it was Israeli aircraft. The French immediately denied the accusations, said they had nothing to do with this. Syria said that it technically could not shoot down the plane for a number of reasons. So, there were two versions left: an accident, or Israel, but Israel declined to comment."
Pushkov considers such a position of Tel Aviv strange and irresponsible: "Israel wants to have free hands in Syria and not to be responsible for its actions. Sooner or later it had to lead to serious trouble. This situation emerge naturally from a random system of Israel's actions in Syria. They usually explain their actions with attacking the Iranian forces in Syria. But unlimited military activity is fraught with such events. It is still necessary to clarify the details through closed channels: to what extent this action was deliberate. "
Alexei Pushkov noted that Moscow and Tel Aviv had established extensive relations on the Syrian problem: "Israel is a major player in the Middle East, it has its own security interests, which are undermined by periodic shelling from outside the country, which Israel regularly stresses. It strives for the security of his borders. And Israel's position is well founded here. But an attempt to ensure its security should not lead to arbitrary actions throughout Syria far from Israel's borders. Latakia is far from the borders of Israel. What did the Israeli planes do there? If Israel refuses to comment on it, then we may have a state, which is not responsible for its actions. This is the zone where Israel's actions start to conflict directly with Russia's security interests
