After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Jerusalem's Putin Pub is now just named Pub
Israel is keeping good ties with ally Putin, as well as with Ukraine. But the owners of Jerusalem's Putin Pub, a bar for Russian-speaking immigrants, erased his name when Russia invaded Ukraine.
JERUSALEM — A bemused German tourist stands outside the pub he had visited the other day.
"There was Putin's pub," he says. "And today, just pub."
On Feb. 24, the day Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, the Russian-speaking co-owners of the Putin Pub yanked the Russian president's name from the sign outside.
"We think we did the right thing," says co-owner Leon Teterin, 36. "We are getting away from politics. This is supposed to be a happy place. Not to make people feel they're somewhere aggressive or [connected to] some dictator."
Israel is home to one of the world's biggest Russian-speaking diasporas. More than 1
