Re: hostage
Time line of events doesn't match her being arrested or sentanced "because" of this guy being charged with fraud.
From this Reg article:
"After exhausting his opportunities to appeal the extradition in the Israeli legal system, Burkov was sent to the US to face trial in November of last year, and has now finally coughed to his crimes."
BUT from the article here https://www.yahoo.com/news/putin-meet-mother-us-israeli-woman-jailed-russia-150717266.html
"Issachar was caught with nine grams of cannabis in her checked luggage while transiting from India to Israel at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport last April.
She was convicted in October and jailed for seven-and-a-half years after a court outside Moscow found her guilty of smuggling a "significant amount" of drugs."
So she was arrested seven months before the credit card thief was sent to the US, nine months before he plead guilty. She was convicted and sentanced a month before he was sent to the US, three months before he plead guilty.
So I'm not convinced the cases are related.
Okay 7.5 years for her crime does seem very harsh.
Are you suggesting this is some sort of far in advance plan ?