The Hamas terrorist attack on Israel October 7, 2023 has sparked a Middle East war. A war which has cooled the support by the West of Ukraine and its defence of an illegal invasion by Russia. There is no evidence that Moscow knew about the October 7 attack but it has certainly massively improved their chances of winning the Ukraine war.
What dirty deeds have been dreamt up in the Kremlin to terrorise the world? |
Speculating, it either was or would have been a very clever move to work with Hamas in the Gaza Strip to organise that well documented and horrific attack which resulted in an equally horrific retaliation by Benjamin Netanyahu in effectively destroying the Gaza Strip and allegedly killing 30,000 innocent civilians as well as some of the terrorists.
But it's gone a lot wider than that which is what I think Putin would wish for because he wanted to divert attention from the Ukraine war. He wanted to divert support by America for Ukraine to supporting Israel instead. We know America supports Israel very substantially. It appears to me that America's focus has been pulled away from supporting Ukraine in providing armaments and is now firmly fixed on supporting Israel.
This has worked extremely well for Putin and it is probably fair to say that Ukraine is now losing the war in defending their country. They are in retreat. They are building defensive systems and digging in. They no longer aspire to push Putin's forces out of Ukraine. They are simply trying to defend their country and settling on the current status quo in terms of the extent of the Russian invasion. This has gradually happened since the Hamas terrorist attack.
Connection between Kremlin and Hamas
There is good evidence that Moscow has provided support to Hamas in the past. The Kremlin has had a long relationship with Hamas. The Washington Institute states that the KGB "funded, trained, advised, and equipped anti-western terrorist and militant groups in the region, including groups that saw the destruction of Israel as their primary goal."
They add that "Russian-made weapons had found their way to Hamas for years. In May 2021, senior Hamas leader Osama Hamdan gave an interview to Russia's investigative Novaya Gazeta, in which he said, "I think the Russian people should be proud they gave the oppressed peoples of the world weapons with which they can defend themselves. The weapons were sent to our region in the sixties and seventies."
The Kremlin has provided material support to Hamas according to The Washington Institute. So there's a connection between the Kremlin and Hamas and it doesn't take a great leap of imagination to believe that Putin and his cronies dreamt up a way of dissipating Western support for Ukraine which for Putin was the stumbling block to success in Ukraine.
Putin could never win the war in Ukraine as long as the West in particular America provided extensive multibillion support in terms of armaments to the Ukrainian military. This has substantially dried up. It is said that the Republicans are stopping the continuing support of Ukraine but it seems to me from a purely strategic point of view the Middle East in conflict is highly beneficial to the Kremlin.
Expanding Middle East war
The Middle East war is expanding. And will continue to expand. The current news is that a senior Iranian commander was killed in an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus (update: 2 senior Iranian generals were killed). That is the latest news and I would expect there to be an Iranian retaliation. The indications are that the Middle East may well enter into a long-term conflagration.
Although Israel is a proxy for America and Iran does not want to enter into a war with America through Israel. This probably prevents an escalation due to Iran's substantial involvement. But...
"Tehran vows decisive response to airstrike" - The Times April 2, 2024.
"Attack threatens to escalate Middle East crisis" - The Times.
In parallel I would expect Putin to cement his land grab of the eastern part of Ukraine and in the south in order for him to have an open corridor from Russia to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. He will deem eastern Ukraine as part of Russia and settle on that.
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