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Russia sees opportunity in Hamas win

Putin seizes chance to regain influence over Middle East


By Ryan Jones
February 12, 2006

Moscow appears to have seized on Hamas' electoral victory last month as a means of countering burgeoning American influence in the Middle East and the Bush Administration?s determination to spread democracy in the region.

The authoritarian Middle East was a prime ally of the Soviet Union during its long ?cold war? with the United States-led West. That all changed with the fall of what former US President Ronald Reagan termed the ?Evil Empire? and the turning of most Arab states (for lack of choice) to their new benefactors in Washington.

Russian influence in the Middle East waned even further with the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, leaving Syria the lone regional power still beholden to Moscow.

That is, until Hamas burst onto the political scene during January's Palestinian Legislative Council elections, providing a Russia far less dogmatic about shunning the killers of men, women and children than its Western counterparts with an opportunity to again exert its influence here.

It was in this context that Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking to reporters at the Kremlin on January 31, reacted to news of Hamas' win by declaring almost gleefully that it represented:

?A big blow to American efforts in the Middle East, a very serious blow.?

Putin sought immediate disparity with the policies of the West, opening his arms to Hamas:

?Our position on Hamas is different from that of the United States and Western Europe... [we have] never regarded Hamas as a terrorist organization. But this does not mean that we totally approve and support everything that Hamas has done.?

That position will translate into concrete action later this month when Hamas accepts Putin's invitation to send a delegation to Moscow for official government-to-government talks.

Israel, which has already witnessed one anti-Jewish terrorist network (Yasser Arafat's PLO) gain international legitimacy, has reacted to Putin's highly publicized move with muted fury.

In a fiery dispatch to the Kremlin, Opposition Leader Binyamin Netanyahu reminded Putin that Russian law regards Hamas as a terror group, and warned that his actions would start a chain reaction leading to the legitimization of all anti-Western Islamic terrorism.

During a NATO summit in Sicily Saturday, Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz urged his Russian counterpart to reconsider the invitation before it is too late.

At the same time, a statement released by Netanyahu's Likud cast doubt on whether Russia or any nation would cold-shoulder Hamas after Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week agreed to continue funding the Palestinian Authority as if recognized terrorists were not now running the show.

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