Ahead of their talks, Netanyahu said Putin was the first leader he was meeting after his visit to the White House and the release of President Trump’s Middle East plan, which Netanyahu referred to as “the deal of the century.”

“I think there is now a new opportunity, and I want to talk to you to get your thoughts. We need to see how we can get our strength together for security and peace. Russia and Israel relations have never been better. Thank you for your leadership in this,” he said, adding his thanks for Issachar’s release.

Trump’s Middle East proposal has been outrightly rejected by Palestinian authorities, who were not involved in talks with the White House over the plan.

Diplomatic tangle

Issachar had appeared to be caught in a three-way diplomatic battle between Israel, Russian and the United States, for some time.

Burkov’s family previously suggested a prisoner swap between Burkov and Issachar, according to Russia’s state-run RT television channel. However, he was extradited to the US in November.

Russia’s state-run TASS news agency quoted Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov as saying that the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, had played a role in efforts to secure Issachar’s release, handing Putin a letter from Yaffa Issachar in November.

Israel recently decided to hand ownership of a parcel of property in Jerusalem’s Old City to the Imperial Pravoslav Palestine Society, a Kremlin-aligned religious organization.

The property, known as the Alexander Courtyard, sits outside of the Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Church. It had been subject of years-long legal dispute between two Russian organizations until Israel’s Justice Ministry decided it belonged to the one more closely tied to the Kremlin.