Putin is ready to take advantage of Israel-Gaza war, says Steve RosenbergIt's tempting to view Vladimir Putin as a James Bond-style villain sitting at a giant control panel, in a mountain hideout, sowing chaos around the world.
He presses one button and there's unrest in the Balkans.
He presses another and the Middle East explodes.
It's tempting… but probably inaccurate. It exaggerates the Kremlin leader's global influence.
Yes, Russia has ties to Hamas and has become a close ally of Iran. According to the US, Moscow and Teheran now have a fully-fledged defence partnership.
But that doesn't mean Moscow had direct involvement in, or prior knowledge of the Hamas attack on Israel.
"We do not believe that Russia was involved in any way," Israel's ambassador to Moscow, Alexander Ben Zvi, told the Kommersant newspaper this week, adding that it was "complete nonsense" to suggest there was a Russian connection to the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel.
"I haven't seen any evidence of direct Russian weapons supplies to Hamas, or of the Russian military training Hamas operatives," says Hanna Notte, a Berlin-based expert on Russia and the Middle East at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
"It's true that Russia has a long relationship with Hamas. Russia never declared Hamas a terrorist organisation. Hamas delegations were in Moscow last year and this year.
"But I would not infer from that that there has been extensive military support. Even though we know that Russian-made systems made their way into the Gaza strip, probably via the Sinai [in Egypt] and with Iranian assistance."
In other words, President Putin didn't press a button marked "Middle East war".
But is he ready to take advantage?
Absolutely. And here's how.
Distraction from Ukraine
With the upsurge in violence in the Middle East dominating the international news agenda, Moscow is counting on dramatic headlines from Israel to divert attention from Russia's war in Ukraine. ................
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67099574
