A report prepared by the Israeli embassy in Russia revealed that the
number of Russian Jews who left the country back to Russia arrived to
50.000, while three years ago the number was only 7500. The Central
Russian Census Office reported that 28.500 Jews returned to Russian in
the nineties.
The Israeli embassy in Russia estimated that there are thousands of Israelis who are currently living in Russia but were not mentioned in the Census since they entered Russia via normal visitor VISAs.
In 2003, Russia reported that 7500 Russian Jews who immigrated to Israel in previous years returned back to Russia. Comparing this report to the current numbers, the number of Russian Jews who immigrated back to Russia has tripled.
Israeli sources in Russia reported that the Russian Jews who immigrated back to Russia decided to immigrate as a result of the bad security conditions in Israel and the development of the Russian economic conditions.
The same sources added that 99% of the Israelis who are currently living in Russia decided to immigrate back to Russia rather than staying in Israel.
Last month, Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, called on the Russian Jews to immigrate to Israel and told them that should should come and settle in Israel “even though they had a friendly and supportive president, Vladimir Putin”.
The statements of Olmert came at a conference for the local Jewish community in Moscow.
