TEL AVIV—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to thank him for help finding a long-missing Israeli soldier’s remains, capping over a week of high-profile diplomatic huddles as some polls showed him gaining ground before Israel’s election on Tuesday.
Mr. Netanyahu has touted his statesmanship as a top reason for voters to give him a fifth term as premier. In recent days, he has met President Trump at the White House for formal recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights and held a summit in Jerusalem with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
The high-profile diplomatic events come as Mr. Netanyahu pulls ahead of his main opposition challenger Benny Gantz in several polls. One of them this week, by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, showed his Likud party winning the most seats, 30 to Mr. Gantz’s Blue and White Party’s 27. Mr. Netanyahu’s right wing bloc in this poll has a substantial lead over its rival, being able to form a majority coalition with 67 seats.
A poll released by Israel’s channel 12 Thursday put Blue and White ahead, with 30 seats to Likud’s 26, but still showed Mr. Netanyahu’s party as best positioned to form a majority coalition.
Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Putin have forged a close relationship as both have emerged as key players in Syria’s war.
Speaking alongside Mr. Putin in Moscow on Thursday, Mr. Netanyahu said two years ago he asked Mr. Putin for help locating the soldier, Zachary Baumel, as well as two others who have remained missing since the June 1982 invasion of Lebanon. They disappeared in a battle near the Lebanese village Sultan Yacoub near the Syrian border. The two others haven’t yet been found.
“I would like to thank you, my friend, for myself and for the people of Israel, for what you have done, for the brave friendship between us, which is very important for our country and is very important for the relations between us,” Mr. Netanyahu said Thursday.
Israel has long upheld a principal of returning the remains of lost soldiers as a moral imperative, in a country where most people enter the military at age 18.
Mr. Netanyahu attended Mr. Baumel’s funeral in Jerusalem on Thursday evening.
Russia’s Defense Ministry hosted a special ceremony on Thursday, where they presented Mr. Netanyahu with some of Mr. Baumel’s personal effects. Israel’s military announced on Wednesday that his body was returned to Israel on an El Al flight.
Mr. Putin said Russian military personnel, assisted by Syrian forces, helped find Mr. Baumel’s remains.
“We are glad that he will receive proper military honors in his homeland,” Mr. Putin said, according to comments published by the Kremlin.
Write to Felicia Schwartz at Felicia.Schwartz@wsj.com
