How Neo-Soviet Can Russia Possibly Get, Part I: Annals of Russian "Diplomacy"
Filed under: Europe ~ Middle East ~ Palestine ~ Russia
So let's see now:
Last Tuesday, Russian officials met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and called him the "legitimate leader of the Palestinian people." It seemed Russia was actually attempting to be civilized for once, and distance itself from a standing pattern of active support of the isolated terrorist regime of Hamas (Russia has also supported Hezbollah and sent weapons to Syria). But the very next day, Hamas "lawmaker" Khalil al-Haya announced that his organization had a new date to meet with the Kremlin, specifically a Hamas delegation headed by Khaled Mashaal, the Islamic group's exiled leader, who is based in Syria. At first the Kremlin denied these reports, repeatedly claiming there was no effort to meet with Hamas as it sought to milk the positive PR cow, but then on Sunday the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Kremlin's foreign ministry, headed by the leering Minister Sergei Lavrov (shown above), had indeed confirmed the new meeting with Hamas. Lavrov was quoted as saying: "It's important to hold such talks and countries that do not do so are wrong."
Do you dare to imagine Russia's reaction if Condi Rice decided to have a sit-down with Shamil Basayev and, faced with Russian objections, said "it's important to hold such talks and countries that do not do so are wrong." Russia apparently feels that there are two sets of rules in the world, one for Russia and one for everybody else. Its behavior is in no way different from that of the old USSR, just as heedless of the consequences, just as self-destructive, just as provocative and delusional.
It's the evil empire, all over again.
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