- Putin has used the crisis to criticize the United States
- The problem helps him advance the agenda for a new world order
- Russia is believed to have a more pro-Palestinian stance
- Moscow offers its services as a peacemaker
- Relations between Russia and Israel have deteriorated
LONDON, Nov 17 (Portal) – Russian President Vladimir Putin waited three days before commenting on Hamas’s massacre of Israelis, which happened to take place on his 71st birthday. When he did, he blamed the United States, not Hamas.
“I think many will agree with me that this is a clear example of the failed policy of the United States in the Middle East, which has tried to monopolize the settlement process,” Putin told the Iraqi prime minister.
It took another six days for Putin to speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express his condolences for the killing of around 1,200 Israelis. Ten days later, Russia said a Hamas delegation was in Moscow for talks.
According to Russian and Western political experts, Putin is trying to use Israel’s war against Hamas to escalate what he calls an existential struggle with the West over a new world order that would end U.S. dominance in favor of a multilateral system he believes that it already exists and is taking form.
“Russia understands that the US and EU have fully supported Israel, but the US and EU are now the embodiment of evil and cannot be right in any way,” wrote Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, on his blog and explained that Putin’s needs to differentiate itself.
“Therefore, Russia will not be in the same camp as the US and the EU. Israel’s main ally is the United States, currently Russia’s main enemy. And Hamas’ ally is Iran, an ally of Russia.”
Moscow has an increasingly close relationship with Tehran – which supports Hamas and which Washington has accused of supplying Moscow with drones for Ukraine, which is locked in a bitter war of attrition with Russia.
Hanna Notte, a Berlin-based expert on Russian foreign policy, told the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center that she believes Moscow has abandoned its previous, more balanced position on the Middle East and adopted a “pretty blatantly pro-Palestinian position.”
“Russia is well aware in all of this that it is aligning itself with voters across the Middle East and even beyond — in the global south, in their views on the Palestinian issue, where the Palestinian cause continues to resonate,” she said.
It is precisely these groups of voters that Putin wants to win over with his pursuit of a new world order that would weaken US influence.
“Russia will benefit from this crisis in Gaza primarily by scoring points in the court of global public opinion,” Notte said.
Putin said: “When you look at the suffering and bloodied children (in Gaza), your fists clench and tears well up in your eyes.”
‘DOUBLE MORALITY’
Russian politicians have starkly compared the alleged carte blanche that Washington has given Israel to bomb Gaza to Washington’s punitive response to Russia’s own war in Ukraine, where Moscow says it is not intentionally targeting civilians even though thousands of civilians have been killed.
Israel’s UN ambassador said Russia was in no position to lecture others given what it had done in Ukraine.
But Senator Alexei Pushkov said the West had fallen into a trap of its own making by exposing its own double standards in the way it treated different countries depending on its self-serving political preferences.
“The unconditional support of the United States and the West for Israel’s actions has dealt a serious blow to Western foreign policy in the eyes of the Arab world and the entire Global South,” Pushkov wrote on Telegram.
Russia also sees the crisis as an opportunity for Moscow to expand its influence in the Middle East by presenting itself as a potential peacemaker with ties to all sides, said former Kremlin adviser Markov.
Moscow has offered to host a regional meeting of foreign ministers and Putin said Russia was well placed to help.
“We have very stable business relations with Israel, we have had friendly relations with Palestine for decades, our friends know that. And Russia, in my opinion, could also make its own contribution to the settlement process,” Putin told an Arabic television channel Kanal in October.
There are also potential economic benefits, Markov said, and the added benefit of withdrawing Western financial and military resources from Ukraine.
“Russia will benefit from an increase in oil prices that will result from this war,” Markov said. “(And) Russia benefits from any conflict that the US and EU have to devote resources to because it reduces resources for the anti-Russian regime in Ukraine.”
Alex Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said he believes Moscow has changed its Middle East policy because of the war in Ukraine.
“My explanation is that war is becoming the organizing principle of Russian foreign policy and (because of) relations with Iran that bring military material to the table. The central Russian war effort is more important than, for example, the relationship with Israel.”
Bonds deteriorate
Russia’s traditionally close and pragmatic relations with Israel have suffered.
Moscow’s reception of a Hamas delegation less than two weeks after the Oct. 7 massacre angered Israel and prompted it to summon Russian Ambassador Anatoly Viktorov for sending “a message legitimizing terrorism.”
The dissatisfaction was mutual; Alexander Ben Zvi, Israel’s ambassador, was summoned to talks with the Russian Foreign Ministry at least twice, and UN envoys from both countries exchanged tough words after Moscow’s representative questioned the scope of Israel’s right to self-defense.
Mikhail Bogdanov, one of Russia’s deputy foreign ministers, said Israel had stopped routinely warning Moscow in advance about airstrikes against Russian ally Syria.
When a now-suspended Israeli junior minister expressed openness to the idea of an Israeli nuclear attack on Gaza, Russia said the comments raised “a large number of questions” and asked whether this amounted to an official admission by Israel that this was the case had nuclear weapons.
Amir Weitmann, leader of the libertarian faction in Netanyahu’s Likud party, said Israel would one day punish Moscow for its position.
“We will end this war (with Hamas) … After that, Russia will pay the price,” Weitmann said in a stormy October interview with Russian state broadcaster RT.
“Russia supports the enemies of Israel. After that, let’s not forget what you do. We will come, we will make sure Ukraine wins,” he said.
Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Nick Macfie
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