Did Barak quote Putin or did Putin quote Barak? - The Russian media cited a 2004 article, published in a Russian newspaper, on a 1972 operation commanded by Barak in which a team of Sayeret Matkal commandos took back control of a hijacked Sabena Airlines plane that had landed at Ben-Gurion Airport. The article, written by Alexander Minkin, relates that Barak was the first to enter the Boeing 707 and that he killed the terrorist ringleader after finding him locked in the airplane's toilet. According to Minkin, Putin studied the operation as part of his service in the KGB Soviet espionage agency. Ironically, Barak's rival for the premiership, Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, participated in the Sabena rescue operation under Barak's command.