What’s behind Russia’s ‘soft power’ moves on Israel-Palestine?
Al Jazeera
Mahmoud Abbas is the latest Palestinian leader to visit Moscow amid Israel’s continuing onslaught of Gaza.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In their first face-to-face meeting since 2021, the pair are expected to discuss Israel’s war on Gaza.
The Kremlin has maintained relations with both Israel and Palestine, but experts say its actual sway over the conflict is limited and the meeting has more of a symbolic nature.
“When you’re looking at Russia’s engagement with the Palestine question, it’s about more than just Palestine,” Samuel Ramani, author of Russia in Africa, told Al Jazeera.
“It’s about really cementing themselves within the Arab world, by showing that they have solidarity with Palestinian cause while the Americans are supporting Israel. So that these meetings are not just about Palestine, they’re also about Russia’s soft power in the Middle East.”
Unlike the United States and European Union, Russia has not blacklisted Hamas as a “terrorist” organisation, welcoming the group’s delegates to Moscow shortly after their victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections and treating them as a legitimate political force.
