Israeli military attache ‘cleared of espionage charges’

MOSCOW, May 19 (RIA Novosti) – An Israeli military attache who was detained and expelled from Russia last week has been cleared of industrial espionage suspicions, Israel’s YNET News portal said on Thursday.

Col. Vadim Leiderman was detained last week while meeting with a Russian army officer at a cafe in Moscow. He was interrogated by “one of Russia’s intelligent agencies,” and later he and his family were ordered to leave the country in the next 48 hours.

Upon Leiderman’s arrival in Israel, he was questioned by Israeli security officials and claimed that Russia’s allegations “are baseless and false,” and “the entire incident stems from a misunderstanding.”

The man “was even submitted to a lie detector test before it was announced that Russia’s allegations had been found to be untrue,” the website said.

Leiderman had served as an Israeli military attache in Russia since 2008 and was due to leave in July.

Leave a comment