did putin visit israel

What Russia Hopes to Gain From the Israel-Hamas Conflict

I sraeli President Benjamin Netanyahu used to call Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, his “dear friend.” Since 2015, the Israeli leader has visited Russia more than 10 times, and proudly hung a giant poster of the two presidents shaking hands over his party headquarters during an election campaign in 2019. But the relationship between Russia and Israel has cooled following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, even if Israel has remained more reluctant to support Ukraine than its Western allies would have liked. 

Even so, it came as a shock to many in Israel to see a group of high-ranking Hamas members meeting with a senior Russian official on Oct. 26. The Israeli Foreign Ministry slammed the decision to invite Hamas members to Moscow as “an act in support of terrorism” and called for Russia to expel the Hamas delegation. 

Tense relationships between Russia and Israel have only become more frayed following a riot in Dagestan, in southern Russia, on Oct. 29. Hundreds of rioters stormed an airport to search for Israelis arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv. Israel has condemned the mob and asked Moscow to protect Israeli citizens and Jews in Russia.

Read More: What to Know About the Attacks on U.S. Military Bases in the Middle East

In the wake of Hamas’s attacks on Oct. 7, which killed over 1,400 Israelis, experts say Russian officials have tried to toe a difficult line. While Russia has been quick to criticize Israel’s strikes on Gaza, it remains reluctant to sever ties with Israel altogether. As the Israel-Hamas conflict shows little sign of slowing down, Russia may also be hoping that support for Ukraine will be placed on the back burner for the U.S. and its allies.

Here’s what to know about Russia’s relationship with Hamas, and what experts say Russia stands to gain from the rising tensions in the Middle East.

Russia’s Strategic Moves in the Aftermath of Hamas’s Attack

Russia has defended its decision to host Hamas members in Moscow, saying it is important to maintain ties with both sides in the Israel-Hamas conflict. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the meetings were part of Russia’s efforts to secure the release of hostages from Gaza. 

But Hamas’s description of the meetings paints a different picture. The group praised Russia’s efforts to end what it called “the crimes of Israel that are supported by the West,” according to Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency. In the wake of the meetings, Hamas has announced that it is looking for eight hostages in Gaza that Russia has asked to be released, “because we look at Russia as our closest friend,” Hamas Politburo member Abu Marzouk said on Oct. 28. 

Hamas’s visit to Moscow adds to Israeli fears that Russia is readjusting its foreign policy to move closer to Hamas. Palestinian militants have reportedly gotten around Western sanctions by funneling millions through Russian cryptocurrency exchanges. Ukraine’s Head of Defense Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov has also said that Russia has recently supplied Hamas with arms, although he did not provide evidence for his claim. There is no evidence that Russia was involved in instigating Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks or supplied weapons used.

But Russia has notably not condemned Hamas’s attacks on Oct. 7 as terrorism. Instead, Russian officials have called for both sides to put down arms and reaffirmed its support for a Palestinian state. At the United Nations Security Council, a Russian resolution that called for a ceasefire and the release of all hostages was voted down as it failed to condemn Hamas.

Read More: Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight

In speeches and public appearances, Russian officials have repeatedly criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Oct. 28 that Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is against international law. Putin compared Israel’s blockade of Gaza to Nazi Germany’s siege of Leningrad during World War II, one of the most traumatic events in Russian history during which hundreds of thousands of Russian civilians died.

Others in Russia have gone further, arguing that it is time for Russia to reassess its relationship with Israel. “Whose ally is Israel? The United States of America,” Andrei Gurulev, State Duma deputy and member of its Defense Committee, wrote on Telegram. “Whose ally is Iran and its surrounding Muslim world? Ours.”

In the court of public opinion, “Russia has taken a pro-Palestinian position to an extent that even I was surprised by it,” says Hanna Notte, an expert in Russia’s foreign policy in the Middle East at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

“They’re trying to align themselves with the Arab mainstream” as a bid to improve Russia’s standing in the region, says Mark Katz, a professor at George Mason University..

For Hamidreza Azizi, an expert in Iran-Russia relations at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Russia’s response to Hamas’s attacks also reflects an inclination towards a closer relationship with Tehran and its allies in the region, which include Hamas. Iran, Israel’s bitter enemy, has become one of Russia's key weapons suppliers for its war in Ukraine.

“I think Russia has made a strategic choice already on who to side with in the Middle East, and it’s not Israel,” says Azizi. 

How Russia Stands to Gain from Unrest in the Middle East

So far, Russia may believe that it can profit from the Israel-Hamas conflict, experts say. 

While Russian forces remain bogged down in intense fighting along the front in Ukraine, Kremlin propagandists have rejoiced in the hope that the unrest in the Middle East will divert Western support from Ukraine, making it easier for Russia to consolidate its territorial control over parts of Ukraine. “The distraction value from the war in Ukraine is relevant in terms of media attention as well as potentially weapons support over the medium term,” says Notte.

Read More: The Harrowing Work Facing Gaza Doctors in Wartime

The Pentagon has reportedly decided to send Israel tens of thousands of 155mm artillery shells that were originally planned for Ukraine, according to Axios . In addition to artillery ammunition, already in scant supply across Western countries, both Israel and Ukraine need several of the same weapons systems. So far, Pentagon officials have insisted that they will be able to support Ukraine and Israel at the same time. “We can do both, and we will do both,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a press conference in Brussels on Oct. 11.

Even so, Russia also faces risks if the conflict spreads beyond Israel and Gaza. Notably, Russia wants to preserve its military presence in Syria without sending in more troops, which would increase pressure on the already hard-pressed Russian forces, analysts say. 

If Russia increases its support for Hamas beyond words, it would likely come at the cost of worsening relationships with Israel. Russia has been grateful to Israel for not sending military support to Ukraine, and the two countries maintain contact over military operations in Syria, Katz says.

Even so, Russia has time and time again managed to maintain difficult balancing acts in the Middle East, and may be able to do so once more, winning Arab support without cutting ties with Israel, Notte says. 

“I still think that there are more signs that somehow there will still be a sort of modus vivendi between Israel and Russia,” says Notte. “But it also depends on how things play out further down the line in this conflict.”

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‘Not pro-Israeli’: Decoding Putin’s muted response to Hamas attacks

Russia, which has hosted the Palestinian armed group, has a complicated history with Israel.

Kyiv, Ukraine – “I want to thank you, my friend, for what you have done,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin about four years ago.

His words followed Moscow’s transfer to Tel Aviv of the remains of Zachary Baumel, an Israeli serviceman who had been missing in action since 1982, the time of the first Israeli-Lebanese war.

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Netanyahu expressed nothing but gratitude to Putin, even though the Russian soldiers who discovered Baumel’s remains were fighting for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, one of Iran’s closest allies.

But now, as war rages in the Middle East again, Netanyahu may be feeling backstabbed by his “dear friend” Putin.

Putin remained silent about the conflict for three days, offering no condolences to Tel Aviv and refraining from calling Netanyahu – even though at least four Russian nationals were reported killed and six more went missing.

Meanwhile, Russia’s stance this week did not allow the United Nations Security Council to achieve the unanimity needed to condemn Hamas.

Finally, on Tuesday, Putin broke his silence – only to decry the “catastrophic” civilian deaths and lambast Washington’s steps in the Middle East peace settlement.

“This is a vivid example of the failure of Middle East policies of the United States [as it] tried to monopolise the [peace] settlement,” he said during a televised meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani.

“But, unfortunately, [the US] was not concerned about the search for compromises for both sides and, vice versa, promoted their own conceptions about how it should be done, [and] pressured both sides,” he said.

Moscow also refused to list Hamas as a “terrorist” organisation following similar steps taken by France and the European Union earlier this week.

“We maintain contact with [both] sides of the conflict,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday. “Of course, Russia continues to analyse the situation and keeps its position as a nation that has the potential to participate in the settlement process.”

Analysts say the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Hamas – as well as a bigger war in the region – could benefit Moscow and its allies.

“Russia’s response to the terrorist attack speaks volumes about Putin’s real sympathies, and they’re not pro-Israeli,” Nikolay Mitrokhin of Germany’s University of Bremen told Al Jazeera.

Russia is a key player in the informal anti-Western coalition that includes Iran, North Korea and China – and has long tried to “rock the Western boat”, he said.

“It’s very beneficial for Putin to distract attention and international aid, mostly American, from Ukraine, something [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy frankly fears,” Mitrokhin said.

On Monday, Zelenskyy said Russia was “interested in triggering a war in the Middle East so that a new source of pain and suffering could undermine world unity, increase discord and contradictions, and thus help Russia destroy freedom in Europe”.

“We see Russian propagandists gloating,” he said in a video address. “We see Moscow’s Iranian friends openly supporting those who attacked Israel. And all of this is a much greater threat than the world currently perceives. The world wars of the past started with local aggressions.”

The Middle East conflict could stall a settlement in Ukraine – and freeze pivotal economic ties within Eurasia, a Kyiv-based expert said.

“The attention and resources of Western allies would be dispersed,” Vyacheslav Likhachev told Al Jazeera. “But, most importantly, the perspective of stabilisation in the macro-region would be strategically thwarted.”

A now-delayed peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel could have helped the establishment of a transport hub between India, the Middle East and Europe, he said.

The hub could have ushered a closer macroeconomic integration in Eurasia – something that contradicts the interests of Moscow and Beijing, he said.

“It’s not beneficial for China, it’s not beneficial for Russia,” Likhachev said.

Russia and Hamas

Despite widespread speculation, no evidence of Moscow’s direct involvement in Hamas’s attack on Israel has surfaced.

But it is in Putin’s interests for the new conflict to spread all over the Middle East, distracting the West and undermining aid to Ukraine, a London-based expert on Eurasia said.

“Putin’s calculation is to cause the escalation of the conflict, to widen it geographically and to involve the entire Arab population of the Middle East,” Alisher Ilkhamov, director of Central Asia Due Diligence, a civil society organisation, told Al Jazeera.

And there is no love lost between Putin and Hamas either.

“Hamas for him is just part of the game, a tool, just like for other regional players,” Sergey Bizyukin, a fugitive Russian opposition activist, told Al Jazeera. “The most important thing for him is not to make a mistake by touching Chinese investments in Israel.”

Apart from distracting the world from Ukraine, such a war may cause oil and gas prices to skyrocket – providing Moscow with billions of dollars of extra income.

On Tuesday, Putin reiterated Moscow’s decades-long call for Palestine’s independence – saying it was the only way to settle the conflict.

“Even though calls for Palestine’s independence are legitimate, by pointing at this agenda in today’s context, Putin actually justifies the war crimes committed by Hamas,” Ilkhamov said.

And some Israelis are adamant that Putin’s friendship with Netanyahu was cynical and hypocritical.

“Anti-Semitism was a way of life in the KGB when Putin joined it” in the 1980s’ Leningrad, now St Petersburg, Eduard Kauffmann, a 31-year-old Haifa resident with Russian roots, told Al Jazeera. “He threw Bibi [Netanyahu] under the bus and never looked back.”

The history of Russia’s relationship with Israel is complicated.

Moscow’s ties to Syria, a close ally of Israel’s archenemy, Iran, as well as Russia’s support to the Palestinian cause date back to the Soviet era, when the Kremlin called Israel a “Zionist warmonger” and severed diplomatic ties in 1967 over the Arab-Israeli war.

Communist Moscow backed left-wing, socialist fractions within Palestinian political circles, trained hundreds of Palestinian fighters and armed Egypt before the 1973 October War.

It also developed close ties with Hamas and welcomed its leaders in Moscow since the armed movement came to power in the Gaza Strip in 2007.

But since more than a million ex-Soviet Jews emigrated to Israel after the 1991 Soviet collapse, changing the nation’s demographics and electoral preferences, every major Israeli politician tried to cultivate ties with Moscow.

No one succeeded in this cultivation more than Netanyahu, whose personal relationship with Putin was more than once called a “strange love affair”.

He travelled to Moscow a dozen times, and during one visit accompanied Putin to a ballet performance in the Bolshoi Theatre.

He defended his relationship, saying that it prevented a war between Moscow and Tel Aviv over the nations’ collision of interests and fighter jets over Syria.

“I wouldn’t call it a love affair. I would call it a question of interest,” the Israeli leader told CNN in October 2022.

“Starting a war between Russia and Israel, I didn’t think was a good idea.”

The ties were not shattered even by Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine and a string of anti-Israeli steps Moscow has taken.

Moscow has in recent years threatened to close down the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency, an NGO that facilitated emigration to Israel, and accused the Israeli ambassador in Ukraine of “whitewashing Nazism”.

And the Kremlin has continued to repeat its old and unevidenced mantra about the “neonazi junta” in Kyiv led by Zelenskyy, even though he is an ethnic Jew whose grandfather lost his family in the Holocaust.

For Zelenskyy and several other Ukrainian officials, the picture is clear.

“We are certain that Russia is supporting, in one way or another, Hamas operations,” he told France 2 television channel this week without providing evidence. “Russia is really trying to carry out destabilising actions all over the world.”

Putin's muted response to Hamas attack speaks volumes about Russia's deepening ties with Iran

After decades of friendly relations with israel, russia is aligning with its arch enemy.

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When Russian President Vladimir Putin described what was happening in Israel, he told an energy forum in Moscow that the level of violence was "very high on both sides" and failed to single out Hamas for the surprise attack that left hundreds of Israeli citizens dead.  

Instead, the Russian leader spoke Wednesday about the importance of creating a Palestinian state with its capital city located in occupied East Jerusalem. 

• Are you a Canadian in Israel or Gaza? We want to hear about what you're experiencing. Send an email to [email protected].

Those comments, along with his lack of condemnation around the Hamas attack, show Russia's deteriorating relationship with Israel in favour of forging closer ties with Israel's arch enemy, Iran.

Experts say the eruption of violence in the Middle East could ultimately benefit Russia if the west's attention and resources are shifted away from Ukraine. They also say Russia's response to the crisis is proof of the country's growing dependency on Iran for support.

Iran: Ally of Hamas, 'primary partner' of Russia

"Iran has become one of Russia's primary partners," said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in a message to CBC News. "Iran provides Russia with Shahed drones and will most likely provide Russia with other types of weapons including missiles."

Iran is the main backer of Hamas, the political and militant group behind early Saturday attack that prompted Israel's declare of war. The conflict has so far killed about 2,300 people on both sides.

On Wednesday, Russian officials said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to visit Moscow soon. A date was not announced.

Russia has met with delegations from Hamas before, including  last March , and it has previously hosted other Palestinian groups, including the Palestinian Authority.

Russia's relations with Israel

But during Putin's more than 20 years in power, he has also built friendly relations with Israel, including more than a dozen visits from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Russian media.

In 2020, both leaders stood side by side in a Jerusalem park as they opened a monument, jointly designed by architects in both countries, to honour the hundreds of thousands who died during the siege of Leningrad.

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Russia's ties with Israel, which is a key U.S. ally, helped the Kremlin maintain influence in the Middle East.

But those ties were driven, in part, by strong personal connections between the two countries. 

Israel is home to hundreds of thousands of Russian speakers who started emigrating in the late 1980s and after the fall of the Soviet Union. 

That population swelled after Russia launched its war on Ukraine. According to Israeli government figures , 20,246 Russians moved to Israel in 2022 between January and July. 

Russia tried to make it harder for its citizens to leave, with a 2022 crackdown on a non-profit organization, the Jewish Agency, which helps Russian Jews emigrate to Israel.

The move to dissolve the group followed a comment by Israel's then-foreign minister, who accused Russia of carrying out war crimes in Ukraine. In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin.

But Israel has never joined western sanctions against Russia, nor has it supplied Ukraine with weapons. 

"Israel was very careful with this, even though domestic public opinion is very much pro-Ukraine," Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for Putin, told CBC News on Wednesday. 

During the video call from his home in Netanya, Israel, Gallyamov checked his phone as air alerts were issued for the northern part of the country.

Surprised by Putin's response

Gallyamov worked for Putin when he was Russia's prime minister between 2008-12. Later, Gallyamov became an outspoken — and sometimes critical — political consultant and analyst, who moved his family to Israel in 2018 but continued to work in Russia.

Last spring, he learned he was on Russia's wanted list and would be arrested if he returned. 

Gallyamov said he was surprised by Putin's one-sided reaction toward the attacks in Israel. He said he believes it shows that Russia has become an " Iran proxy, like Hamas itself or Hezbollah .

" Previously if you wanted to get Russia's position, you needed to negotiate with Russia. Now you've got to go to Tehran," Gallyamov said.

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Since Saturday's attack, there has been no reported contact between Putin and Netanyahu. However, Russian media did report that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had spoken with his Iranian counterpart.

Russia's artillery and missile stocks is depleted from almost 20 months of war and its military has relied on Iranian weapons to help carry out its attacks. 

U.S. officials say Iran has shipped hundreds of kamikaze drones  to Russia that have been used to target civilian infrastructure across Ukraine. 

Distraction from Ukraine

While part of Russia's response to the Hamas attack included criticizing the U.S. for moving ships and an aircraft carrier to the region, hosts on Russian state-controlled media celebrated that the west will be focused on another conflict. 

On Wednesday, during the talk show 60 Minutes , host Olga Skabeyeva  talked about how U.S. weapons would now be sent to Tel Aviv instead of Kyiv, and how Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would see that U.S .and Europe had another preoccupation.

Netanyahu vows to wipe Hamas off the map as Gaza siege continues

Zelenskyy met Wednesday with NATO ministers in Brussels, where U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the country will support Ukraine for "as long as it takes." But there are still concerns that Russia could benefit from the Israel-Hamas war.

" Russia is gaining from this and Russia will gain additionally ," said Artis Pabriks, Latvia's former minister of defence in an interview to CBC News. 

Pabriks says he doesn't believe Ukraine is currently getting enough support from NATO to fight Russia. Now, there has been a noticeable shift in public attention. 

" We see ourselves that in the last five days almost nobody speaks about Ukraine," he said. "So that's already a great success for Moscow and Kremlin."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Foreign correspondent

Briar Stewart is CBC's Russia correspondent, currently based in London. During her nearly two decades with CBC, she has reported across Canada and internationally. She can be reached at [email protected] or on X @briarstewart

with files from Corinne Seminoff, Reuters

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Video miscaptioned to claim Putin warned US against Israel involvement | Fact check

The claim: Video shows Putin warning US not to interfere in the Israel-Hamas war

An Oct. 9 Facebook post ( direct link , archive link ) includes a video of Russian President Vladimir Putin and claims he delivers a warning about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. 

“Putin: I am warning that #America should not interfere in #IsraelPalestineWar,” reads the caption on the post. “If America does that we will openly help #Palestine.” 

Other versions of the claim were shared hundreds of times on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Fact check roundup : Israel-Hamas war sparks many misleading claims online. Here's what's true and false.

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Our rating: False

The video predates the ongoing Israel-Hamas war by nearly a year and does not match the caption. It shows Putin discussing the threat of nuclear war in December 2022. He did not mention Israel or the U.S. in his remarks.

Putin discussing nuclear war in clip, not Israel-Hamas war

The video matches a clip from Putin’s televised meeting with his Human Rights Council on Dec. 7, 2022. 

A USA TODAY translation of the clip posted to YouTube shows Putin discussing the threat of nuclear war in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Putin said the “threat is growing” and that Russia considered nuclear weapons a potential means of defending itself if necessary. 

Putin did not reference Israel or issue a warning to the U.S. in the meeting, according to various news reports and the Kremlin's full transcript .

Fact check : Viral video predates Israel war, doesn't show Hamas parachuting into Israel

Putin said on Oct. 13 that Israel has a right to defend itself from Hamas, though he expressed concern about Israel’s tactics in doing so because of their effect on Palestinian civilians. Those comments came just over a week after a Russian attack killed more than 50 civilians in northeastern Ukraine. 

Putin has also blamed the war on what he described as failed U.S. policy in the Middle East, as reported by Reuters . His spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia was talking to both sides of the conflict and sought to help resolve it, even amid the country's own war with Ukraine .

USA TODAY has debunked an array of claims about the Israel-Hamas war, including that the Las Vegas Sphere displayed an image of the Israeli flag, that Israel bombed a historic church in Gaza and that a video showed rockets fired during a “new air assault” against Israel. 

Reuters , the Associated Press and Check Your Fact also debunked the claim. 

USA TODAY reached out to several users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources:

• USA TODAY (YouTube), Dec. 8, 2022, Putin on nuclear weapons: ‘Threat is growing’
• Associated Press, Dec. 7, 2022, Putin says Ukraine fight is taking longer than expected
• Reuters, Dec. 7, 2022, Putin says Russia may be fighting in Ukraine for a long time
• The Kremlin, Dec. 7, 2022, Council for Civil Society and Human Rights

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here .

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

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Putin to make rare trip abroad to discuss Israel-Hamas war with UAE and Saudi Arabia

Russian president will travel to Middle East on Wednesday as he tries to reclaim role in global politics

• Israel-Hamas war – live updates

Vladimir Putin will travel to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday on a rare overseas trip to discuss the Israel-Hamas war as Moscow seeks to reassert Russia’s role in the Middle East.

With the prospect of another ceasefire in Gaza receding, the Russian president is making only his fifth trip abroad since the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for him in March that accused him of responsibility for the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia .

In July he skipped a summit in Pretoria over fears that the South African hosts would feel obliged to attempt his arrest. Neither the UAE nor Saudi Arabia have signed the ICC’s founding treaty, which means they would not have to arrest him.

Hamas, which most western countries consider to be a terrorist group, is on good terms with Russia, frequently sending delegations to Moscow. Qatar, the west’s preferred interlocutor with Hamas, has been unable to find the basis for a further hostage swap between Israel and the Palestinian group, the precondition for a second humanitarian pause, so Putin has relatively little to lose by intervening now.

On Thursday he will host the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi. The two leaders last spoke by phone on 16 October.

Raisi has been unable to persuade leaders of the Gulf states to do more to support Hamas , such as impose an oil boycott on Israel.

Iran has been accused by Israel and the UK of being behind the attacks on the Red Sea undertaken by Houthi rebels on western-lined international shipping. Western countries have accused Tehran of supporting Russia’s offensive in Ukraine by providing it with large quantities of drones and other weaponry.

The crisis represents an opportunity for Russia to re-enter global politics, offering itself as an unlikely champion of multilateral solutions in the Middle East. It has positioned itself as a potential mediator having maintained ties with Israel and Hamas.

Moscow has accused the US of going it alone in mediation that has ignored the traditional role of the quartet consisting of the EU, the US, Russia and the UN. It also claims western double standards have been revealed by the west’s refusal to condemn alleged Israeli war crimes while accusing Russia of committing crimes in Ukraine – a message Moscow believes resonates in the global south, and at the UN.

On 26 October a Hamas delegation in Moscow was led by Mousa Abu Marzook, a founder and political leader of the group, who met the Russian deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov. Marzook, who lives in exile in Qatar, travelled to Moscow after an earlier meeting in Doha with Bogdanov and the Iranian deputy foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani.

Russia has strong economic ties with the UAE and Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, Putin will discuss trade, international politics and humanitarian aid with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Kremlin announced. He will meet his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in the UAE for talks on trade, energy, tourism and education, it added. The conflict between Israel and Hamas is on the agenda of both meetings, the Kremlin said.

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Essential questions about the Russia-Hamas link: The evidence and its implications

Jonathan M. Winer

As the war in Gaza continues to unfold, essential questions about Russian and Iranian support for Hamas remain. They include whether Russia played any role in providing support to Hamas ahead of its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Evidence available from foreign-language publications in Russian, Persian, Arabic, and Hebrew, as well as those in English, provides provocative leads, which, if accurate, have serious potential implications. 

A long courtship

Russia has maintained a relationship with Hamas for more than 17 years, since the group’s leaders visited Moscow in March 2006 , just weeks after taking power in the Gaza Strip. 

In the ensuing years, President Vladimir Putin repeatedly invited Hamas’ political and military leadership back to the Russian capital. Hamas officials and commanders secured high-level meetings with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev , Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov , and Russia’s special envoy for the Middle East, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov , among others. 

Bogdanov’s role in the link between Russia-Hamas is central. He has been in charge of the relationship on a day-to-day basis for many years, regularly meeting its leaders in Moscow and Qatar . Bogdanov has also been entrusted by Putin to undertake sensitive diplomatic missions with China, among other major actors , to support Russia’s Mideast policies.

Russian talks with terrorists and Hamas political leaders

Hamas officials who have met regularly with Bogdanov over the years include its political leaders, such as former longtime head Khaled Meshaal; his successor, Ismail Haniyeh , a U.S. Specially Designated Global Terrorist; and Moussa Mohammed Abu Marzouk, a senior member of Hamas’ political bureau who previously served as its deputy chair under Meshaal. They also include senior members of Hamas’ military leadership, such as Husam Badran and Saleh al-Arouri . Badran formerly led Hamas’ military wing in the West Bank, where he planned suicide bombings during the Second Intifada, including the infamous 2001 Dolphinarium discotheque massacre in Tel Aviv, which killed 21 young Israelis. Al-Arouri, characterized by the Israeli government’s public intelligence center as number two in Hamas overall, founded its military wing and directs the group’s military and terrorist activities . He also notably has close, long-standing ties with Iran .

The U.S. Treasury Department first listed al-Arouri as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in September 2015, after he took responsibility for a June 12, 2014, terrorist attack that kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, including dual U.S.-Israeli citizen Naftali Fraenkel. In 2018, the U.S. State Department offered to pay a $5 million reward to anyone who brought him to justice to face trial for his crimes, including several terrorist attacks, hijackings, and kidnappings.

Thus Russia has not limited itself to building a relationship with Hamas’ political leaders. Its lengthy diplomatic courtship of Hamas has included regular contacts with military leaders who have long histories directing terrorist attacks that have killed civilians.

Tighter Russian-Iranian operational relations

Russia has simultaneously built a close working relationship with Iran and its military and terrorist arm, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), with increasingly tight financial, military, as well as political ties. Since the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, Iran and Russia have responded to U.S. sanctions with a program to “dump the dollar” and to connect bank-to-bank using SPRS, the Russian counterpart of the financial messaging system SWIFT, utilized by the rest of the world, with the goal of sanctions busting and intensifying their mutual economic ties. By January 2023, Russia had become the largest foreign investor in Iran , putting $2.7 billion into Iranian manufacturing, mining, and transport sectors, according to Ehsan Khandouzi, the country’s finance minister.

On the military side, two weeks before Hamas carried out its brutal Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu traveled to Tehran to meet with Iran’s top security official, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, as well as the head of the IRGC air force, Amirali Hajizadeh, to inspect Iranian-built drones and missile- and air-defense systems . During his visit, Shoigu stated that Tehran and Moscow had worked for months on long-term military cooperation, with “serious military and defense dimensions” and “ an entire range of planned activities , despite opposition from the United States and its Western allies.” 

Iran’s pre-attack meeting with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad

Just as conspicuously, on Sept. 1, 2023, five weeks before Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack, the group’s military leader, al-Arouri, traveled to Beirut to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhalah, another long-time Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The PIJ’s longtime openly stated goal is the destruction of Israel.

Since its inception, the PIJ has carried out numerous terrorist attacks, including large-scale suicide bombings against Israeli civilian and military targets. According to the website maintained by the Iranian foreign ministry, at the Beirut meeting, the Iranian foreign minister and the two terrorist leaders agreed to work together on joint action to carry out what they called “the complete defeat of the Zionist regime” with “the formation of a single Palestinian state in all of historical Palestine.”

Critical Hamas-Russian meetings in Moscow

Against this backdrop, it becomes easier to decode the possible substance of important meetings that took place between Russian and Hamas leaders on March 16, 2023, in Moscow , held just days after Hamas received an invitation from Russia . The timing of those meetings is significant, coming one year after the re-invasion of Ukraine and the burgeoning imposition of Western sanctions on Russia and six and a half months before Hamas’ attack on Israel. So why did Russia decide to convene it there and then?

At those meetings, first Lavrov and then Bogdanov met with two of Hamas’ most significant leaders, political head Marzouk and military commander al-Arouri. Coming out of the talks, the top Hamas officials made statements consistent with Russia promising to support Hamas in changing the status quo with Israel. Al-Arouri was quoted stating the Moscow trip “was an important visit [for Hamas] that highlights the role of the movement with many global actors,” in which the Hamas “delegation affirmed its legitimate right to armed resistance [emphasis added] in order to confront the Israeli occupation and continued Israeli violence and oppression of Palestinians.” In response, Bogdanov reportedly emphasized Russia’s “ unwavering support ” for the rights of the Palestinian people.

After the meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Bogdanov, Marzouk described the visit on Hamas’ website as “ different from its predecessors ” since the “[special] military operation in Ukraine [the Russian regime’s term for the war] caused special confusion in the world and in the international system.” 

One possible explanation: this time was different because, in the context of its stalled invasion of Ukraine, Russia had agreed to help Hamas, with the strategic purpose of opening up a costly second front for Western states supporting Ukraine. Now, the West would simultaneously have to support Israel at both military and political cost, especially vis-à-vis the Western countries’ relations with the Global South.

The evidence not only documents Russia’s long-term political support of Hamas, which it does not recognize as a terrorist group , but the meetings with Hamas and Iran also offer circumstantial evidence of engagement on the military side, as reflected by the suggestive timing of the March 16 Moscow meetings with Hamas convened by the Kremlin, and Shoigu’s meeting with Iran just ahead of the Hamas attack. 

The possible use of Russian proxies to assist Hamas

Did the Russian government directly, or indirectly, through proxies — Iran, Syria, or others — provide weapons, military training, financial support, terrorist finance facilitation, or the provision of intelligence and/or strategic or tactical advice to Hamas ahead of its brutal Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel? Could the Russian government even have provided Hamas implicit or explicit approval for the attack before it occurred?

Below is some of what is known to date. Taken together, the datapoints command attention.

Evidence of Hamas’ access to Russian-origin weapons and technology

For years, Hamas fighters have relied on Russian weapons, for example Kornet anti-tank missiles, to attack Israeli targets such as buses carrying Israeli soldiers . Hamas has contended the weapons are made locally — that is, inside Gaza — but the laser-targeting technology used to precisely guide them is not likely to be readily manufactured there. Iran has long been believed to be the supplier. But there is growing evidence that more of Hamas’ weapons originated from Russia as well . 

On July 1, Hamas’ military arm undertook an open-to-the-Palestinian-public, Soviet-style show of its military inventory. Among the Hamas weapons on display were locally made missiles and launchers, Shihab drones, grenade launchers, and Russian-built Kornet anti-tank missiles . One Palestinian publication described the weapons displayed at the show as “Made in Gaza” and “Made in Russia.”

On March 14, just ahead of the Hamas visit to Moscow, CNN cited four unspecified sources who stated that Russia had been sending to Iran weapons and equipment lost on the battlefield in Ukraine that the United States and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) states had provided to the Ukrainian military. These reportedly included Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-aircraft systems, which could then be reverse-engineered and used by Hamas. In June, a senior Israeli official stated directly that he was concerned the weapons Moscow sent to Tehran would go straight from Iran to Hamas and Hezbollah .

On Sept. 10, Mossad chief David Barnea declared that the Israeli government was concerned Russia was seeking to sell advanced weapons to Iran in a barter arrangement. Barnea expressed worry that Iran would provide Russia with short- and long-range missiles in addition to the drones it was already selling to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, and in turn, Russia would transfer advanced weapons to Iran that could threaten Israeli security “and maybe even our existence.”

Allegations of training by Russian “private” military companies

Using proxies to provide weapons to Hamas and, when possible, to have those weapons manufactured originally in other countries, such as China, or North Korea, fits the Kremlin’s usual modus operandi . Using proxies would enable President Putin to stir up conflict in the Middle East at lower risk than having its forces directly involved in a military action killing civilians. It would also be unsurprising for Russia to use “non-governmental” outfits, such as the so-called private military companies (PMCs), to train foreign fighters or to supply them with weapons, to provide some deniability if outsiders found out. 

The day after the Oct. 7 attack, an official Ukrainian source claimed, “Some of the fighters of the Wagner [Group] PMC, who left Belarus in the direction of African countries, were involved in the training and transfer of combat experience to Hamas militants.” According to the Ukrainian Center for National Resistance , a Ukrainian government news and information agency formed after the Russian re-invasion of Ukraine, Hamas fighters had been training to use small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to drop explosive material as part of their attack. The center stated, “Only the Russians, among the allies of Hamas, have experience using drones with reset mechanisms on enemy equipment.” The center further asserted that Wagner provided Hamas fighters this training in an unspecified African country and that its information had come from “the Belarusian underground,” another country where the Wagner Group had carried out activities in 2023. On Oct. 10, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated , without providing further specifics, “We are certain that Russia is supporting, in one way or another, Hamas operations”; Zelensky reiterated the charge , again without specifics, on Nov. 20.

To date, there has been no non-Ukrainian confirmation of the allegations that the Wagner Group offered training to Hamas. Some have suggested this support was provided in whole or in part by other lesser-known Russian “private” military companies, such as Vegacy Strategic Services or the “Vega Network” with offices in Moscow and complex links to one another , previously alleged to have carried out such training for Palestinian fighters in Syria ; another possibility floated was PMC Redut , also active in Syria. 

Whatever the case, someone trained the Hamas fighters to undertake their sophisticated attack on Israel, as well as to behave as they did. In contrast with previous attacks by Hamas, the verified atrocities documented on Oct. 7, seen in footage recorded by body cameras worn by Hamas fighters, resemble the tactics used by Russian PMCs to intimidate and terrify local populations. Gunmen shooting the dead bodies of civilians in cars, beheading a body with a hoe, throwing burnt corpses in a dumpster, and committing heinous acts on the living — these are tactics used by Russian PMC fighters, not only in Ukraine but in the Central African Republic , Mali , Syria , and Libya . 

The Ukrainian account provides one theory of who trained Hamas. Further independent reporting is needed to determine the truth. Of potential relevance is the release of declassified intelligence by U.S. officials on Nov. 21 that the Wagner Group has been recently preparing to provide an air-defense system “to either Hezbollah or Iran” at the direction of the Russian government.

The cryptocurrency connection

At the same time, there is separate evidence of Russian support for terrorist financing for Hamas. The Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, currently under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, has reportedly served not only wealthy Russians, various criminal groups, and Iran but also provided a means to help Hamas — and the PIJ — fund their terrorist operations prior to Oct. 7.

Major intelligence questions

Taken as a whole, the circumstantial evidence raises serious questions about what Russia and Iran knew and how much they may have helped Hamas to carry out its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. U.S., Israeli, and other Western intelligence agencies must work intensively to reach assessments on an array of key questions. With its invasion of Ukraine stalling out, did Russia decide to work to open up a second front in the Middle East as a means of dividing and distracting its adversaries? Did Russia promise Hamas assistance in its meetings with the group’s political and military leadership last March? If so, what did such pledges include: arms and technology, military training, financial support, assistance in money laundering, information warfare, and which types of assistance were provided in practice? Did Russia and Iran agree together to help Hamas, PIJ, Hezbollah or others in the region take on Israel as a means of weakening their respective enemies in the West as well as Israel itself? Did Russia and Iran know that the attack was going to take place? Did they agree on its timing? 

The information that is public does not provide definitive answers to these questions. But there is one more data point that is especially relevant. It is one that took place soon after the Oct. 7 attack and the start of Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza.

The post-Oct. 7 Moscow meetings with Iran and Hamas and Russia’s current disinformation campaign

On Oct. 26, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Bagheri Kani met with Russia’s Bogdanov and Hamas’ Marzouk for a trilateral meeting in Moscow. Officially, the three gathered to discuss dual-national Russians who were being held hostage by Hamas. Little more than that was said publicly, besides Marzouk praising Moscow’s position on the conflict and the active efforts of Russian diplomacy. The New York Times presented the meeting as a belated effort at diplomatic catch-up by Russia to demonstrate its diplomatic engagement in the crisis, after initially seeking to “keep its distance ” from the conflict.

If one draws a straight line from the Oct. 26 meeting back to the successive series of Russian-Iranian, Russian-Hamas, and Iranian-Hamas meetings that occurred in the months prior to Oct. 7, it is plausible to suggest there was more on the agenda than diplomacy. The growing evidence of the ongoing systematic Russian effort to disseminate pro-Hamas disinformation , including the retention of Moldovan agents by a Russian national to carry out destabilization efforts in France, provides a further clue of Russia’s continuing efforts to help Hamas and stoke conflict over the Israeli-Hamas conflict in the West.

There is a pressing need for Western intelligence agencies to gather enough information to reach solid conclusions about the extent of Russian involvement in the Hamas attack, and to make those conclusions public. The findings will be an essential element of managing as well as containing the conflict going forward. Any such findings could also have legal implications. Under U.S. law, countries designated as state-sponsors of terrorism have no immunity to civil suits by their U.S. victims. It is thus squarely in the public interest for the truth to come out.

Jonathan M. Winer, a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute, was the U.S. Special Envoy and Special Coordinator for Libya from 2014 to 2016 as well as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Law Enforcement .

Photo by YURI KADOBNOV/AFP via Getty Images

The Middle East Institute (MEI) is an independent, non-partisan, non-for-profit, educational organization. It does not engage in advocacy and its scholars’ opinions are their own. MEI welcomes financial donations, but retains sole editorial control over its work and its publications reflect only the authors’ views. For a listing of MEI donors, please click here .

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Putin Makes Rare Visit to Mideast

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia stopped first in the United Arab Emirates and went on to Saudi Arabia. He said the Israel-Hamas war will figure prominently in his discussions.

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By Vivian Nereim and Ivan Nechepurenko

Vivian Nereim reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Ivan Nechepurenko from Tbilisi, Georgia.

His plane flanked by four fighter jets, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia began a rare trip on Wednesday to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, two oil-rich Gulf nations that have resisted pressure to take sides in the Ukraine war.

The talks touched on international crises, primarily Israel’s two-month-old war with Hamas — a conflict that has played into Mr. Putin’s geopolitical aims by distracting Western leaders from the war in Ukraine.

The Emirati president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, called Mr. Putin his “dear friend” at the start of their talks, and after Mr. Putin arrived in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, called him a “very dear guest for the kingdom.”

“We have great opportunities in front of us in the future,” Prince Mohammed told the Russian leader in a video released by the Saudi government.

Mr. Putin told the crown prince that he had taken advantage of his invitation “to come and talk with you and with all our friends,” and insisted that their next meeting “should be in Moscow.”

Upon his arrival in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, his first stop on the trip, Mr. Putin was greeted with pomp: His limousine drove through the grounds of a sprawling palace flanked by camels and Arabian horses whose riders held Russian flags. Jets trailed the Russian tricolor in the sky, and Mr. Putin was also welcomed with a 21-gun salute, the Emirati state news agency reported.

“We see Putin in the West as a pariah, but this visit highlights that he is welcome” in other places, said Anna Borshchevskaya, a Russia expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Kremlin foreign policy priorities continue to resonate outside the West, which helps Putin to continue his war on Ukraine.”

In their meeting, Mr. Putin and Sheikh Mohammed discussed the potential to develop their countries’ relationship into a “strategic partnership,” the Emirati state news agency reported. They also talked about the war in Gaza, the need to work toward a permanent peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and developments in Ukraine, the report said.

Sheikh Mohammed expressed his desire to “build bridges of cooperation and development with different countries in the world,” the Emirati news agency said.

In their opening remarks, both leaders emphasized the deepening trade and investment ties between their two countries, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Mr. Putin’s trip, announced unexpectedly by the Kremlin on Tuesday, came amid signs of eroding support in the United States for Ukraine, which is frantically trying to secure more Western aid for its effort to drive Russian forces from its territory.

Before his visit to Abu Dhabi, Mr. Putin had not traveled beyond China, Iran and the former Soviet states since he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A prominent Emirati political scientist, Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, downplayed the significance of Mr. Putin’s visit for the Emirates, describing it as “symbolic.”

Mr. Abdulla said that the Russian leader “has very few friends,” while the Emirates “wants to be a friend of everybody.”

In recent years, the Emirates has designed its foreign policy around hedging against its dependency on the United States.

The Emirati leader has traveled to Russia twice over the past two years, and his country was celebrated as the guest of honor at Mr. Putin’s flagship investment forum in June.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Putin left the Emirates for Saudi Arabia and talks with Prince Mohammed, the de facto leader of the kingdom.

The Saudi crown prince also has maintained close links to Mr. Putin since the invasion of Ukraine, despite pressure from Western powers to isolate Russia. He has positioned himself as a potential mediator in the conflict.

Mr. Putin’s talks in the Middle East were the first in a series of diplomatic meetings planned for this week. On Thursday in Moscow, the Russian leader will host President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran, the leader of another key player in the region.

The outbreak of the war in Gaza has diverted attention from Ukraine and allowed the Kremlin to attract the sympathy of people in many developing countries where support for the Palestinian cause is widespread.

Mr. Putin condemned the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, the armed group that rules Gaza, which killed 1,200 people, according to the Israeli authorities. He called it a terrorist act and tried to preserve working ties with Israel while also arguing that the dominance of Western elites allowed for the crisis to happen in the first place.

Grief and anger have spread in Arab countries since the Israeli military responded to the Hamas attack by bombarding and invading Gaza, where more than 2 million Palestinians live.

The assault has killed more than 16,000 people in Gaza — a bombing campaign of an intensity that has few precedents in this century . In protests across the Middle East, people have expressed fury not only at Israel but also at the United States , Israel’s main international backer.

“We’ve seen anti-Americanism at an all-time high,” said Mr. Abdulla, the Emirati political scientist.

But it is unclear how much Mr. Putin will be able to gain from that, though.

Mr. Abdulla said that despite the anger at the United States, one of the main messages Arab states had received since the war was that “America is back” — militarily and politically — after a long period during which regional leaders worried that U.S. interest in their region was waning.

“There is very little that Putin can bring to the situation in Gaza,” Mr. Abdulla said, describing Russia as “irrelevant” to that war, in which the United States has been the dominant international player.

In the Kremlin account of Mr. Putin’s arrival in Saudi Arabia, the Russian president told Prince Mohammed that it was important for them to share their assessments of “what is happening in the region,” and said their meeting was “certainly timely.”

In the kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, oil markets are also likely to be an important item on the agenda for Mr. Putin’s talks, Ms. Borshchevskaya said.

Joint efforts on oil production — coordinated through the OPEC Plus group of oil producers — have contributed to the development of strong ties over the years between Russia and Saudi Arabia and personally between Mr. Putin and the Saudi crown prince, particularly after the resolution of an intense oil price war between the two leaders in 2020.

However this year, points of friction have opened again as Saudi Arabia leads OPEC Plus in an effort to slash oil production and prop up prices, with limited success so far. While the kingdom has made a voluntary oil production cut of 1 million barrels a day, Russia has contributed smaller cuts to its exports, but not its production — despite Saudi attempts to convince Russian officials to take more action.

When the two leaders began to talk on Wednesday evening, Mr. Putin implied that Prince Mohammed had canceled or delayed a planned meeting in Moscow, without elaborating on when or why.

“We were waiting for you in Moscow,” he said. “I know that circumstances have made adjustments to these plans.”

“But the next meeting should be in Moscow,” Mr. Putin added, to which Prince Mohammed replied: “Undoubtedly. We are ready.”

Vivian Nereim is the lead reporter for The Times covering the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. She is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. More about Vivian Nereim

Ivan Nechepurenko has been a Times reporter since 2015, covering politics, economics, sports and culture in Russia and the former Soviet republics. He was raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in Piatykhatky, Ukraine. More about Ivan Nechepurenko

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

The Biden administration has told Congress that it intends to move forward with a plan for the United States to sell more than $1 billion in new weapons to Israel .

Biden’s national security adviser said that Israel has still not provided the White House  with a plan for moving nearly a million Gazans safely out of Rafah before any invasion of the city.

Israelis gathered  across the country for the first national day of mourning since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks, with protesters disrupting several ceremonies .

A Key Weapon: When President Biden threatened to pause some weapons shipments to Israel if it invaded Rafah, the devastating effects of the 2,000-pound Mark 84 bomb  were of particular concern to him.

A Presidential Move: Ronald Reagan also used the power of American arms to influence  Israeli war policy. The comparison underscores how much the politics of Israel have changed in the United States since the 1980s.

Netanyahu’s Concerns: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, under pressure from all sides, is trying to reassure his many domestic, military and diplomatic critics. Here’s a look at what he is confronting .

Al Jazeera Shutdown: The influential Arab news network says it will continue reporting from Gaza and the West Bank, but its departure from Israel is a new low in its long-strained history with the country .

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has delivered a blistering attack on the west ahead of a visit to China this week, blaming “western elites” for the war in Ukraine and outlining Beijing and Moscow’s alignment on a parallel world order.

In an interview published by Chinese state news agency Xinhua on Wednesday, Putin said the two autocracies had “similar or coinciding positions” on geopolitical issues.

Both Russia and China advocated for “international law”, Putin said, but rejected “western attempts to impose an order based on . . . some mythical rules of no one knows whose making”.

The publication of the lengthy interview comes as Putin is due to arrive in China on Thursday for a two-day state visit, the Russian leader’s first foreign trip since he was sworn in for a fifth presidential term last week.

The trip will include talks with Xi Jinping, who has also championed a “multipolar” model of global affairs with a diminished role for the US-led west.

“Today’s global shocks have been provoked precisely by [the west’s] policies,” Putin said of the invasion of Ukraine, which he referred to as a “dramatic manifestation [of] the crisis on the planet today”. The UN has said Moscow’s invasion directly violates its charter through the unilateral use of force.

China has refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion, arguing that as an independent third party to the Ukraine conflict, it should not be blamed for the war and is entitled to pursue its own relations with Russia.

Instead, it has offered a position paper warning against the use of nuclear weapons, making veiled criticism of Nato and calling for a ceasefire without demanding a Russian withdrawal.

In his interview, Putin praised the “realistic and concrete steps” in China’s peace plan, which largely echoed Russia’s own talking points on the war, saying they could be the “foundation of a political-diplomatic process that takes into account Russia’s security concerns and helps ensure a long-term, stable peace”.

The Russian president added that the “main problem” with any future talks was the reliability of any security guarantees for Ukraine and Russia in the face of what he described as western duplicity, implying a greater role for China in ending the conflict.

He did not repeat his recent veiled threats that Russia could make use of its nuclear arsenal to deter western support for Ukraine. Xi warned Putin personally against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine during a visit to Moscow last year.

Beijing has insisted that it is not supplying weapons to its neighbour, which western powers have repeatedly warned against. But western leaders suspect China’s economic support for Russia — including its trade in engines and machine tools — is helping Moscow’s war effort.

In the Xinhua interview, Putin said “Russia stands ready for negotiations” but blamed the west for the collapse of talks at the beginning of the conflict.

Putin placed great hopes for Russia and China’s efforts to build a new order based on loose international groupings such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Brics.

The SCO includes Russia, China, central Asian countries, India, Pakistan and Iran. The Brics consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, with Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates recently also joining.

“We have actively contributed to launching multilateral associations and mechanisms that are independent of the west and are successfully operating,” Putin said.

Both associations are “key pillars of the emerging multipolar world order”, Putin said, with experts from member countries co-operating in space exploration, nanotechnology, nuclear medicine and biotech.

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