The Basmanny District Court in Moscow adjourned this morning a session to consider the request of the Russian Ministry of Justice to liquidate the Jewish Agency in Russia.

After leaving the court building, one of the defense lawyers, without giving his name, said that the session had ended, advising to address the Ministry of Justice for comments, at a time when no decisions were expected at today's meeting.

As stated in a communication posted on the court’s website, the two parties to the case were summoned to a preparatory conversation session before considering the case on the merits, and according to judicial authorities, “the talk at the current stage is about preliminary hearings and pretrial verification.”

Later in the day, Al Mayadeen reporter, quoting sources from the Moscow Court, stated that the first court session regarding the Ministry of Justice’s request to liquidate the Russian representative office of the Jewish Agency was scheduled for August 19.

On the eve of the first court session, an Israeli delegation comprising representatives of a number of ministries and lawyers arrived in Moscow to negotiate the fate of the Jewish Agency in Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Vladimir Putin does not intend to hold any meeting with the Israeli delegation.

The Russian Ministry of Justice plans to dissolve the agency, after filing a lawsuit before the Basmanny District Court in Moscow against the organization, which supports relocating Russian Jewish immigrants to the occupied territories, on charges of collecting information on individuals in Russia.

An Israeli newspaper had revealed that the Russian government had sent a letter to the Jewish Agency, asking the latter to stop all its operations in the country, saying that "the Russian decision could undermine the ability of Russian Jews to immigrate to Israel."

On July 15 of this month, Israeli media reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed a new Russian law to "paralyze Jewish and Israeli organizations," commenting that "the fear is that the new law will create an impossible situation for Jewish and Israeli organizations to operate in Russia."

After that, Israeli media spoke of “great tension between Russia and Israel,” against the background of reports from Moscow that the Jewish Agency had been suspended, noting that this matter was linked to “Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s statement regarding the war in Ukraine,” describing the suspension of the agency as "political punishment."

On July 25, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister clarified that the investigation was not a political move against the occupation. However, Israeli officials fear that it might be a sign of Moscow's dissatisfaction with "Tel Aviv's" foreign policy toward Ukraine, Israeli media said.

Read more: Israeli official decries Jewish Agency row with Russia