By CLIFFORD J. LEVY


MOSCOW - The hard-line positions of Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s new foreign minister, have disquieted the Obama administration. But in Moscow, there has been no such squeamishness. Mr. Lieberman is an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, and the notably warm reception that he received in Russia this month from high-level officials like Vladimir Putin could be a sign of things ahead.

There was no way to tell, of course, how much of the cordiality was simply a display for the cameras. Still, it revealed how Israel and Russia are trying to navigate the crosscurrents of a Middle East profoundly in flux - notably in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle and in Iran, where the tumultuous election and street protests were perhaps the most vivid illustration.

Israel’s new government has voiced its reservations about the United States’ new policies under President Obama in both of those areas, so Mr. Lieberman’s trip could easily be seen as a tactic - using his access in Russia to suggest that Israel might become less dependent on the United States and look to Moscow for support.

Even if it is just a bluff, his pivot toward Russia - which itself seeks a larger diplomatic role in the Middle East - adds one more element to a list of shifts under way in the region. All of these changes are traceable, to some extent, to reactions to Mr. Obama’s emphasis on improving relations with the Arab and Muslim worlds through diplomacy, and pressing Israel to stop the growth of settlements in the West Bank.

“We would like to add some diversity in our foreign policy,” Mr. Lieberman told a Russian-language television station in Israel upon his return. “And, of course, Russia is a key player.”

Mr. Lieberman stressed that he did not favor weakening Israel’s fundamental bond with the United States.

In fact, the maneuvering in recent weeks has at times had the feel of shadowboxing. With a new diplomacy- oriented administration in Washington and a new hawkish one in Jerusalem, the various parties in the region are trying to prod and test one another to see how positions are being recast.

The Kremlin is hoping to use this period to reassert itself in the Middle East and challenge American dominance there. If it has good relations with both Israelis and Arabs, it can more readily present itself as an honest broker. It is also planning to sponsor a Middle East peace conference in Moscow.

Mr. Lieberman seemed to thrive here because he speaks not only the language of Russia, but also that of the Russian leadership. Both sides believe in a tough use of state power, according to political analysts, as well as a resolute nationalism and a willingness to act against Islamic extremism in ways that may be perceived in the West as excessive.

For example, Mr. Lieberman, who reflects the right-wing views of many immigrants from the former Soviet Union, has called for Arab citizens in Israel to swear an oath of loyalty to the state. The Kremlin recently established a panel to combat what it termed attempts to falsify history in ways that demean the achievements of Russia.

Tatyana A. Karasova, head of the Israel department at the Institute for Oriental Studies in Moscow, said Mr. Putin and Mr. Lieberman had a rapport because they are both “gosudarstvenniks - a term that derives from the Russian word for state or government and implies a person who likes wielding official power. “Putin, as a gosudarstvennik, can really understand another gosudarstvennik like Lieberman, she said.

While the Soviet Union was among the first nations to recognize Israel at its founding in 1948, it later became a staunch cold war ally of Arab countries like Egypt, Syria and Iraq, and Soviet Jews encountered pervasive discrimination. But since the Soviet collapse, Russia’s relations with Israel have steadily improved; the one million immigrants who fled the former Soviet Union for Israel became one reason. (Mr. Lieberman himself emigrated from Moldova in the late 1970s.)

Russia and Israel have eliminated visa restrictions for travel between their countries, and Russian tourists now flood Israel, with Israeli executives often going the other way. Because of the immigration, Russia arguably has closer societal ties to Israel than the United States does.

At the same time, Russia retains strong diplomatic and business interests in Arab countries and Iran that it does not want to damage. It talks to Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and to the fundamentalist Hezbollah in Lebanon, despite Israeli objections.

Russia is also building a civilian nuclear power plant in Iran, and is less willing than Washington to use sanctions to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. This is a point of friction with Israel, and at least for now, it did not seem that Mr. Lieberman had much success in convincing the Kremlin to move more aggressively against Iran.

Even so, it appears that Mr. Lieberman believes that he has a better chance than other Israeli officials in wooing Moscow.

“It is gratifying to realize that people who know more than hearsay about this country are appointed to such high posts in Israel,” Mr. Putin told Mr. Lieberman. “I hope that it will be an additional impetus for the development of Russian-Israeli relations.”

Analysts pointed to another aspect of this budding relationship: both the Kremlin and rightist Israelis nurture grievances about how they are seen in the United States and Europe.

“If we look at all the criticism from the West about the Chechnya problem, it is very similar to what you hear people say in accusing the Israeli government,” said Dmitri Babich, a political commentator with the state-run news agency in Moscow. “Even the terms are the same - disproportionate use of force, too much collateral damage, etc. They feel that the West doesn’t realize how complex these problems are.

Mr. Lieberman himself alluded to that confluence. “Russia, more than anyone, is very familiar with terror, he said. “Russia itself has suffered from double standards.”