Archived link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20060813153346/http://www.axisglobe.com/hezbollah1.htm
The Great Secret of the Russian Middle Eastern Policy
Dangerous liaisons: covert ‘’love affair” between Russia and Hezbollah
Author: Michel Elbaz, AIA general coordinator
24.05.05
Since the tragedy of 9/11, the President of the Russian Federation has never missed an opportunity to remind the Western world that his country was the first one to stage a war against global terrorism. Translated from the “Kremlin language” it meant fighting against the Chechens, who refuse to disarm themselves. Putin is definitely right in claiming that Russia’s battle against them had started much earlier than the 9/11-terror attack took place. Revolt of the nations of North Caucasus opposing foreign occupation dates back to the end of the 18th century, even before Tsarist Russia finished conquering the region. Since then each and every uprising was quelled brutally accompanied by genocide and deportation of the local population. Every new generation of the North Caucasian people tried, in vain, to regain its freedom.
The same repeated itself during the nineties of the previous century. But then, the new players – Islamic extremist organizations from abroad, entered the scene. They decided to transform Chechnya, which managed to gain its independence, into their main bridgehead inside the collapsed Soviet Union. Putin, who rose to power against the background of the infiltration of Islamic militants to Daghestan, used the situation to declare that the Chechen liberation movement is an indivisible part of the global terrorist network. Foreign Islamic elements, which supported Chechnya, were put on the Russian terror list. But there was “not enough room” on this list for the rest of the terrorist organizations, which were not suspected of hostile activity against the Kremlin.
Furthermore, several of them earned Russian sympathy and were “honored” with Moscow’s courting. This was Putin`s revival of the traditional Soviet policy. During the USSR era its leadership used to divide the international terrorists into categories; “freedom fighters” and “radical elements”. The first served Moscow’s geopolitical interests and received its support. The others, acting against the USSR, or declining to accept its sponsorship, were labeled “terrorists”. Today Moscow’s policies and methods are identical.
The pro-Iranian Hezbollah stands out among those who benefit from the Kremlin’s support. Its fighters are guilty of murdering hundreds of American and French citizens in the eighties. During the previous decade its emissaries committed two huge terrorist acts in Argentina, killing almost 120 people. Today Hezbollah`s terrorists are fighting coalition forces in Iraq. Putin`s declarations about “Russia’s uncompromising battle against international terrorism” are taking place simultaneously with the contacts of the Russian Ministry of foreign Affairs with the leaders of Hezbollah. Their emissaries in Russia recruit potential suicide bombers without restraint or opposition on behalf of the local authorities. They purchase arms in the areas of the ex-USSR, which are now under Russian control. Russian ex-military experts train militants of Hezbollah before they infiltrate Iraq.
Covert “love affair” – the full story, part I
The Imam asks for Russian help
The relations between Russia and the Shiite’s religious leadership in Lebanon started to develop in the beginning of the seventies. The spiritual leader of the Lebanese Shia community, Imam Moussa Al-Sadr, visited Moscow in 1972 and asked Soviet authorities to issue humanitarian aid to his people.
At the same time cooperation between the Marxist factions of the PLO that were active in Lebanon and Soviet military intelligence – GRU, intensified greatly. Several soviet officers (speaking fluent Arabic) even visited Palestinian terrorist training camps in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon between 1972-1975. Using their connections in PLO they managed to establish contact with Iranian opposition members and radical Lebanese Shiite groups, which also were training in Palestinian camps at that time.
Later, these contacts between Shiite extremists and GRU officers, allowed access of the Soviet intelligence to the AMAL and the Hezbollah leaders. In the beginning of the eighties, after Al- Sadr`s disappearance (1978) Moscow established tight relations with Nabih Berri, following the strengthening of his position as AMAL`s leader. The head of the KGB branch in Beirut, Yuri Perfiliev, and GRU officers acting in Syria and Lebanon, conducted links with Berri. On the contrary, Hezbollah in the beginning tried to avoid any direct contact with Moscow representatives at that time. Its spiritual leaders even expressed hostility towards the USSR because of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and oppression of the Muslim nations in the Soviet Union.
In September 1985 Imad Mughnieh`s (the head of the special operations unit of Hezbollah) militants abducted four employees of the Russian Embassy in Beirut. In exchange for setting them free the abductors demanded to cease all Syrian Army actions against Hezbollah, FATAH, Sunni radicals and left wing militia bases in Beirut and Tripoli. Moscow accepted these terms and put pressure on Syria, stopping the fighting.
Concurrently, the head of the KGB in Beirut Perfiliev, using the sources of Walid Jumblatt`s intelligence services made a direct contact with Hezbollah`s spiritual leader Sheikh Muhammad Fadlallah. A day after they have met for the second time, three of the kidnapped employees of the Russian embassy were set free. The fourth one – a senior officer of the KGB, was murdered, but the main reason of his death was more in the power rivalry between the KGB and Soviet military intelligence in Lebanon and less in Hezbollah`s intentions to harm Soviet representatives. After that incident there was no substantial data on contacts between Moscow and Hezbollah for at least a decade. But, according to the testimony of GRU agent in Sweden Stig Berling, Soviet military intelligence continued to cooperate with terrorist organizations in Lebanon until 1993.
Azerbaijani Defense Minister’s deputy and the head of the Azerbaijani secret service Department of operations (until April 2005) Taufik Babayev, claims that in 1994 the Russian intelligence SVR (ex-Foreign Department of the KGB in the Soviet era) tried to renew contacts with Hezbollah. Babayev was responsible for keeping an eye on Iranian activities directed against his country and Tehran’s connections with Islamic extremist organizations.
According to Israeli sources Babayev discovered that at the end of 1994 the head of SVR, Evgeny Primakov, using his close relations with Syria and Iran, found a channel to contact Hezbollah.
By the way, the same Yuri Perfiliev, who managed relations with Fadlallah during the eighties, worked for the SVR in 1994.
Diplomats on a Secret Service
Primakov`s appointment to the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry in January, 1996, brought drastic changes in Moscow’s foreign policy. The pro-western orientation of his predecessor gave way to the revival of traditional Soviet diplomacy. The main manifestation of the change was the process of rapprochement between Russia and the Arab world, India and Iran. Concurrently, Primakov continued to define the goals of the Russian intelligence services. His close confidant, Vyacheslav Trubnikov, was appointed to lead the SVR (Sluzhba Vnesnei Razvedki), and coordinated all actions with his patron throughout his tenure in the office. Primakov has continued nurturing all of the initiatives and projects that he started as head of the SVR. Several months after he had replaced the previous Foreign Minister, he started to seek contacts with Hezbollah. In December, 1997, the Russian ambassador to Israel, Michail Bogdanov, admitted during an interview that Moscow constantly keeps in touch with Sheikh Nasralla`s subordinates. According to him, the contacts are kept primarily through the Russian embassy in Beirut. Bogdanov noted: “our cooperation with the organization is meant to encourage restraint. Less then a month before this interview, Primakov had visited Beirut. While he was conducting official meetings with Lebanese government figures, his attendant, Viktor Posovaluk, secretly met with the leaders of Hezbollah, including its General Secretary’s deputy, Naim Kassem. Later in Moscow, during his meeting with journalists, Posovaluk called Hezbollah a “national liberation organization”.
He came back to Lebanon in May, 1998, and again unofficially met with Naim Kassem., Posovaluk was conducting the contacts with Hezbollah on behalf of the Russian Foreign Office until he died in the summer of 1999. All this time he was the Russian President’s special envoy to the Middle East and a deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Incidentally, he also managed contacts with representatives of the Taliban.
After his death, several meetings between representatives of the Russian Foreign Office and Hezbollah took place in 2000-2001. During his conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Sharon in November, 2003, President Putin admitted the existence of such contacts, but claimed that they were conducted solely for the sake of receiving information on three abducted Israeli soldiers.
Coming soon - the next part of the series:
Role of the official leaders of the Muslims of Russia in Moscow’s relations with Hezbollah
Kremlin legitimizes Hezbollah`s actions
Hezbollah`s spiritual leader calls for Russian involvement in the Middle East
Back to Main | Part II | Part III | Part IV
Related items:
War in Lebanon Divided Between Russia and Germany (08.08.06)
Part 2:
https://web.archive.org/web/20060821194436/http://www.axisglobe.com/hezbollah2.htm
The Great Secret of the Russian Middle Eastern Policy
Dangerous liaisons: covert ‘’love affair” between Russia and Hezbollah
Author: Michel Elbaz, AIA general coordinator
26.05.05
Covert “love affair” the full story, part II (preceding part)
Envoys of the Ummah or
Russian communication with Hezbollah is not reserved for diplomats only. Official Islamic leaders of Russia also take part in these liaisons. The majority of Muslims in Russia belong to the Sunni branch of Islam. After the USSR collapsed, they were marked by extremist Sunni preachers from Arab counties as a preferable objective for the expansion of their influence. Following the war in Chechnya, their activity was forbidden, and most of the foreign charity organizations and institutes for the propagation of Islam were declared to be supporters of terrorism. But such a harsh attitude is not applied to Shia fundamentalist organizations, such as Hezbollah. They do not constitute a threat to the Russian regime, they are not forbidden, and there are no laws against contacting their representatives abroad. The first official delegation of high ranking Russian Muslim leaders came to Beirut to meet with the representatives of Hezbollah in January, 2002. Mufti Nafigulla Ashirov, the leader of the Muslims living in Russia’s Asian regions, led the delegation. To describe Nafigulla`s status and level of influence in Russia, it is enough to note that during the elections of 1999 his main assistant, Abed Al- Vahked Niyazov, led the party list of the Unity block in voting districts located in the Urals regions, accumulating more than 20 million Muslim votes to support Putin.
During the visit to Lebanon, Nafigulla, together with representatives of Hezbollah, took part in the summit of Islamic religious leaders. In the farewell speeches Russian Muslims- called for strengthening Moscow’s relations with Sheikh Nasrallah`s organization.
Since then, the interactions between the Russian Muslim leadership and the leaders of Hezbollah have become regular.
The Institute of Oriental Studies` expert, Vladimir Akhmadov, has written a lengthy article devoted to the importance of contacts with Hezbollah for the promotion of the Russian interests in the Middle East. He claims that relations with the Shia organization strengthen Russia’s position in the region, particularly regarding the issue of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
If this is really so, Putin`s ambitions to rehabilitate Russian influence in the area expressed through tightening of relations with Syria, Iran and Turkey will lead to the strengthening of relations with Hezbollah. The current occurrences in Lebanon encourage this tendency.
Legitimizing Terrorism
Before the Israeli army’s departure from Lebanon in Spring, 2000, Russia accepted, to a certain extent, the legitimacy of Hezbollah`s terrorist actions against Israel. The most blunt expression this attitude came during Evgeny Primakov`s visit as a Minister of Foreign Affairs to the countries of the region in April, 1996. Before visiting Israel, he said that “all the tension in Southern Lebanon may not be blamed on Hezbollah, while Israel is still occupying part of this country”. Simultaneously with this statement, Moscow offered to mediate the negotiations between Israel, Syria and Iran regarding the issue of Hezbollah. Primakov also claimed that Israel is not striving sufficiently to find - political solution for the problem of South Lebanon. One can ascertain the Russian attitude towards Hezbollah after the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon by looking at the way in which the Russian state news agency, RIAN, covered accidents on the Lebanese border since May, 2000. Most of the reports are based on information from the Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar channel. RIAN`s reporters are fond of reminding their audience that all the terrorist actions of Hezbollah on the border are efforts to “regain the Shaaba Farms Lebanese territory, occupied by the Israeli forces”.
“The Hezbollah must receive proper representation in Lebanese governmental institutions,” announced the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov one month after Rafik Hariri`s assassination. The official speaker of the Russian Foreign Ministry added that this Shia organization plays an important role in the country’s political, economic and social life. He pointed out that Hezbollah is represented in the Parliament and acts within the limits of the Lebanese Constitution.
Fadlallah Calls for Russian Involvement
In the beginning of Hezbollah`s rise, its leaders expressed hostility towards Moscow. At that time, such a position was backed by Hezbollah`s external policy, well explained by one of its leaders, Hussein Al-Musaui (who established AMAL al-Islami, which later merged with Hezbollah). “We are fighting against East and West as one against the USSR and against the USA” he said in his interview to the Arabic paper “Al-Kifah Al-Arabi” in January, 1984. His words closely corresponded to the Iranian policy at that time. But since the end of the eighties and particularly after the USSR`s collapse, ayatollahs’ attitudes towards Moscow have changed. Russia and Iran have abandoned mutual suspicions and tension, and moved towards strategic cooperation. Iranian influence and the new world order affected Hezbollah, driving its official leaders to alter their policy towards Russia. Not, however, the spiritual leaders they occasionally criticized Moscow’s policies as harshly as their Iranian colleagues did. For example, in February, 1995, Sheikh Fadlallah condemned the Russian authority for unleashing war in Chechnya. Moscow’s struggle to return to its traditional policy in the Middle East and to become again an opponent of American hegemony in the region was realized noted by Sheikh Nasrallah and his environs during the second half of the nineties. These Russian intentions serve Hezbollah`s interest, and its leadership plans to use Moscow to strengthen their organization’s regional and international position. This is why representatives of Hezbollah, since the second half of the nineties, have called for tightening relations with Russia and assisting in the growth of its involvement in the area. Russian sources reported that in May, 1998, the General Secretary of the organization, Sheikh Nasrallah, talked about cooperation between Moscow and Hezbollah on regional issues during his meeting with Victor Posovaluk. A year and a half before that, Sheikh Fadlallah had even agreed to give an interview to the Russian conservative newspaper, “Zavtra”. The spiritual leader of Shia terrorists suddenly proved to be a supporter of increasing interaction with Moscow. Fadlallah stated that “Russia has to give priority to the relations with Eastern countries, especially Arab and Muslim ones. This is the area where Russia can play an important role and fully exercise its potential, including the economical sphere, to be the counterbalancing power to the West”. With the expansion of Russian involvement in the Middle East, the growing role of Hezbollah in Lebanese internal policy and the exacerbation of the contradictions on the issue of its military wing, the interest of Hezbollah`s leadership in promoting connections with Russia undoubtedly will grow.
Coming soon - the next part of the series:
Hezbollah`s Russian branch (names, operations, connections)
Official Moscow’s relation to Hezbollah`s activities on the Russian soil
Back to Main | Part I | Part III | Part IV
Related items:
War in Lebanon Divided Between Russia and Germany (08.08.06)