The Kremlin said Friday that a US-Israeli woman jailed in Russia has not requested a pardon, which is delaying any possible release.

The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said it was impossible for Naama Issachar to be granted a presidential pardon without first submitting a formal request for one, the Reuters news agency reported.

“We have laws in Russia that need to be respected,” Peskov said, according to the Kan public broadcaster.

Issachar, 27, was sentenced by Russia to 7.5 years in prison after nearly 10 grams of marijuana was found in her luggage during a layover in a Moscow airport in April.

Standing alongside Netanyahu and the visibly moved Issachar, Putin told at a press conference that Netanyahu’s position was clear to him and he was taking it into consideration in making a decision.

As Naama’s mother smiled, Putin hinted at a possible pardon saying, “I told her and I am saying it again now, everything will be all right.”

According to Hebrew media reports, Russia has asked Israel to transfer a piece of Russian Orthodox Church property near the Old City of Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the Kremlin, as a goodwill gesture ahead of Issachar’s release.

On Thursday, a Russian national whose extradition from Israel to the US was believed linked to Isaachar’s fate, pleaded guilty to running a website that helped people commit more than $20 million in credit-card fraud.

Aleksey Burkov, 29, of St. Petersburg, Russia, entered the plea to charges including fraud and money laundering in a federal court in Virginia.

Header: Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with Yaffa Issachar, mother of Israeli citizen Naama Issachar who is jailed in Russia for a drugs offense in Jerusalem, Jan. 23, 2020 (Aleksey Nikolskyi, Sputnik Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)