Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In their first face-to-face meeting since 2021The pair are expected to discuss Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Kremlin has maintained relations with Israel and Palestine, but experts say its real influence over the conflict is limited and that the meeting is more symbolic in nature.
“When we look at Russia’s involvement in the Palestinian issue, it is about more than just Palestine,” Samuel Ramani, author of Russia in Africa, told Al Jazeera.
“It’s really about cementing themselves in the Arab world, showing that they have solidarity with the Palestinian cause while Americans support Israel. So these meetings are not just about Palestine, but also about Russia’s soft power in the Middle East.”
Unlike the United States and the European Union, Russia has not blacklisted Hamas as a “terrorist” organization, welcoming the group’s delegates to Moscow shortly after its victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections and treating them as a force. legitimate policy.
In February, Russia organized a conference with representatives of Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad, with the aim of bridging the sometimes bitter divisions between them.
“But nothing ever happened,” noted Ruslan Suleymanov, an independent Russian Middle East expert now based in Baku.
“This is generally all that Moscow is capable of; it has no serious influence on Palestinian factions. In addition to its support for Palestine, Moscow also has to criticize Western countries for their support for Israel. Russia today takes an anti-Western and, consequently, anti-Israeli position. For example, when the UN Security Council meets to discuss British-American proposals [on Gaza]Russia has always used its veto power, something that the Palestinians appreciate. But this does not convert into any type of capital.”
Russia’s own motions for a ceasefire in Gaza at the UN Security Council in October were rejected by the US, UK, France and Japan.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry is also reported to have sent hundreds of tons of aid, mainly food and hygiene products, to the besieged Palestinian enclave, to be distributed through the Egyptian Red Crescent Society.
“It is simply important that the Kremlin shows once again that it is playing a role, but I don’t think that means anything,” Suleymanov added.
“Abbas will soon turn 90 years old. It is obvious that a transition of power in Palestine is imminent. I think the Kremlin understands this too, and if it hasn’t already, it will be watching closely who takes Abbas’s place. Perhaps this is also under discussion.”
Russia and Israel
However, Israel’s history with Russia is deeply intertwined.
Escaping pogroms and persecution, the Jews of the Russian Empire formed the first wave of mass migration from Europe to Palestine.
After World War II, the USSR originally supported the 1947 partition plan, reportedly claiming that Western nations had failed to protect their own Jewish populations, and was the first to recognize the Jewish state.
The fledgling Israeli army even received weapons from communist Czechoslovakia, then subordinate to the Kremlin. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin may have thought Israel was a useful barrier against British interests in the Middle East.
But the USSR quickly rejected Zionism, arming and equipping neighboring Arab nations as well as Palestinian liberation movements.
As a student in the 1970s, Abbas earned his doctorate at the Patrice Lumumba University of Peoples’ Friendship in Moscow, writing a controversial thesis on what he argued were common interests between early Zionists and Nazis.
Israeli investigators even claimed, based on Soviet documents, that Abbas was a KGB agent – a suggestion that Abbas dismissed, accusing investigators of trying to derail the peace talks.
After the 1967 Six-Day War, the Kremlin completely severed diplomatic ties with Israel until the end of the Cold War, only re-establishing contact when communism collapsed in the early 1990s.
Modern Russia has tried to balance its relationship with Israel with support for Palestine.
Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have publicly enjoyed a friendly relationship, even being seen watching ballet together. Complicating the relationship is Russia’s involvement in Syria, where it collaborates with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel.
“There are things that each wants from the other,” said Mark N Katz, professor emeritus at George Mason University, adding that at the same time, Israeli authorities “fear” that if relations deteriorate, Moscow could harm the Jewish community. in Russia.
“Moscow does not want Israel to do anything to arm Ukraine, and they are pleased that the Israelis have been restrained in this regard. The Israelis, in turn, cite the conflict resolution agreement between Russian and Israeli forces regarding Syria, according to which the Israelis attack the Iranians and Hezbollah but do not harm the Russians,” Katz said.
According to Ramani, “the Israelis are increasingly acting unilaterally in Syria, sometimes just informing the Russians, instead of consulting and interacting with them.”
So far, Israel has refused to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. But relations have noticeably cooled.
“Remember Putin’s openly anti-Semitic comments about Zelenskyy’s Jewish roots, or [foreign minister Sergey] Lavrov’s comments about Jewish responsibility in the Holocaust… all this happened long before October 7th,” Suleymanov said.
“But after October 7, relations became even more tense. In Israel it is now completely unacceptable for Russia to accept Hamas. If before October 7th this was understandable because it was assumed that Moscow would act as an intermediary, now this is seen in a completely different way. And when Putin compared the bombing of Gaza to the siege of Leningrad, this was also taken very badly in Israel.”
Israel is home to a large Russian diaspora, and the Kremlin used its channels with Hamas to facilitate the release of some Russian-Israelis captured on October 7.
“Because Russian-Israeli relations have been so strained due to their criticism of the war and [their relations with] In Iran, the Russians now have smaller-scale diplomatic objectives, for example, they were collaborating with Hamas to remove Russian hostages from their territory”, explained Ramani.
The Iran factor
In July, the political head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran, for which Iran, a close ally of Russia, promised retaliation.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the killing, calling it a counterproductive measure for ceasefire negotiations and urging all parties to show restraint.
“I think if there is an Israeli-Iranian conflict, what are the prospects of the US going into such a war and what can Russia really do?” Katz said.
“Russian forces [in Ukraine] they are quite overwhelmed: one week it seems like they are moving forward, now it is clear that they seem to be on the back foot. Will Russia have the ability to act in a way that determines the conflict?”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
