I hope this more than a symbolic move (and I suspect it is). Russia has accepted the offer from Israel to come to Russia's aid in fighting terror:

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news — web sites), in a telephone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin (news — web sites) on Sunday, proposed expanded intelligence coordination between the two countries.

However, Lavrov was careful to point out that Israel was one of several Middle Eastern countries with which Russia coordinated on security issues, including Saudi Arabia, Syria and other Arab states.

"Terrorism doesn't have any nationalities," he said. "I believe the key to the solution of the problem is to bring all countries to fight terror and I can assure you that in addition to our very close counterterrorist cooperation with Israel we have similar counterterrorist cooperation with Arab countries."

Of course, there is no equivalence between the kind of help Arab countries are prepared to give Russia, and that of Isarel. We shall see how this works out. At a minimum, it may well influence Russia's behavior towards Israel in the Security Council.

Posted by Thomas  9 6 04