'Russia seems fully committed to helping Hamas and Iran'

Russian president Vladimir Putin gives a speech during his press conference at the Commonwealth of Independent States's Head of States Meeting

(Image credit: Contributor/Getty)

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Josh Rogin for The Washington Post
Will Lloyd for The Times
Nicholas Bloom for The New York Times
Polly Toynbee for The Guardian

published 17 October 2023

Putin is helping Hamas to hurt the West

Josh Rogin for The Washington Post

Russian president Vladimir Putin told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Russia was trying "to help normalize the situation" in the Gaza Strip, says Josh Rogin in The Washington Post. But Moscow is in fact "on the side of Hamas and its patron, Iran". And its "main foreign policy goal" is to "distract" the world from its "atrocities" in Ukraine, while "seizing the opportunity to ramp up its violence" there. A senior Hamas official has praised Russia's assistance, while Russian officials and outlets have "unanimously blamed" the US for the crisis. "Moscow's interest is in stoking it, not solving it," says Rogin.

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