MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday for the first time since Syria accidentally shot down a Russian reconnaissance plane in September 2018 while defending against Israeli strikes. The accident killed 15 Russian airmen and seriously strained Russian-Israeli relations. Moscow would later decline a series of Israeli proposals for high-level meetings to settle the issue and supplied the S-300 missile defense system to Syria.

Putin and Netanyahu met briefly in November in Paris on the sidelines of the conference commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. As the issue continued to erode the bilateral relationship, Netanyahu continued to seek a full-fledged encounter with Putin that eventually ended in the agreement to host the Israeli leader in Moscow on Feb. 21. Netanyahu had to delay the visit over the need to deal with the emerging centrist coalition at home but ultimately made it to the Russian capital a week from the originally scheduled date. The visit hence acquired a clear-cut domestic angle with Netanyahu trying to make the most of this trip both in terms of PR appeal with a series of tweets from Moscow and in terms of the message he conveyed to the Russian president.

Putin played along. The meeting was expected to signal the relationship survived the worst stress test Russia and Israel have experienced in recent years and Putin's very first sentence welcoming the Israelis showed Moscow was ready to turn the page.

“We have been planning this meeting for some time. Life moves forward and requires consultations at the top level. Our bilateral trade is increasing. It is not very large in absolute figures but the trends are positive. And, of course, it is very important to discuss the situation in the region and security issues,” Putin briefly remarked.