menu-control
The Jerusalem Post

Russian-born oligarch calls for new liberal coalition to 'protect Israel'

 
 Leonid Nevzlin is seen at the memorial ceremony to former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin on October 23, 2007 (photo credit: OREL COHEN/FLASH90)
Leonid Nevzlin is seen at the memorial ceremony to former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin on October 23, 2007
(photo credit: OREL COHEN/FLASH90)

Nevzlin has owned a 20% stake in Haaretz and is the father-in-law of Likud MK Yuli Edelstein.

Leonid Nevzlin, a Russian-born businessman and philanthropist, tweeted on the eve of Rosh Hashanah about the need for a new liberal coalition to protect Israeli democracy.

Nevzlin made his fortune in the Russian oil and gas industry as an executive of the Yukos Petroleum Company.

A long-time Putin critic, Nevzlin gave up his Russian citizenship within a month of the war in Ukraine starting and had been critical of the Putin government since the early 2000s, when Putin began opening criminal cases against members of his company.

Advertisement

Since arriving in Israel in 2003 he has become a media mogul buying a 20% share in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2011 and launching The Liberal magazine in 2014.

Nevzlin’s connection to Israeli politics doesn’t end with his media purchases. His son-in-law is Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, the former health minister during the early part of the coronavirus pandemic. Edelstein and Irina Nevzlin married in 2016, she is chair of the board of directors of The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot.

 Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein leads a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on February 12, 2023. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein leads a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on February 12, 2023. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Was this a message for Edelstein?

Edelstein has been touted as a possible Likud dissenter against the judicial reform with commentators expecting him to lead any internal resistance to the judicial reform.

Edelstein’s history as a political prisoner and refusnik in the Soviet Union has made him a hopeful target of the anti-judicial reform camp.

×
Email:
×
Email: