Will Russia try to exploit Middle East volatility? What could come next
Global News
With Russian war efforts stalling in Ukraine, experts question whether the Kremlin will try to draw American attention away from the Israeli-Hamas conflict.
Experts have been warning the Israel–Hamas conflict could spread into a wider regional conflagration, drawing in other state and non-state actors.
And a Russia expert says that amid the raging hostilities in Gaza and Ukraine, the Kremlin could try to seize new opportunities, putting a heavy burden on the United States to placate multiple conflicts.
“It is in (Russia’s) interest for there to be a wider war in the Middle East, because for sure, it will result in divided attention for the U.S. and for Europe,” McGill University political science professor Maria Popova said.
“The Russian regime right now is just fundamentally anti-western and really wants to weaken the West in every way it can — and a broader war in the Middle East, this is one way to do that.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Popova said, is trying to reclaim the country’s superpower status.
And with its invasion in Ukraine struggling to gain ground, she told Global News the Kremlin likely sees the Israel-Hamas conflict as an opportunity to advance both its standing in the Middle East and its military goals in Ukraine.
Russia has a presence in the region through its close ally Iran that, in turn, supports both Hamas and Hezbollah, a powerful militia in the south of Lebanon that is also dedicated to seeking Israel’s destruction.
Merissa Khurma, the director of the Middle East program at the Wilson Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C., said regardless of whether Iran did or didn’t contribute directly to the Hamas attack on Israel, the Oct. 7 bloodshed completely shifted the status quo in the Middle East, with implications for years to come.