Free Republic

Russia has not classified Hamas as terrorist group. Officials from Palestinian movement, including Haniyeh, have held meetings with Russian officials in Moscow in recent years. Hamas is viewed as a terrorist group by several countries, including the U.S. and many of its allies. Russia's deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov has warned the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran was unacceptable and will lead to an escalation of violence. "This is all very bad. This is an absolutely unacceptable political assassination, and it will lead to a further escalation of tensions," "Iran's direct capability is very poor, which is...

After consultations with Palestinian Authority leaders and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Russia is called on the Hamas terrorist organization to release hostages taken from Israel on October 7th. According to Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov met on Monday with representatives of Hamas and other Palestinian groups and reportedly discussed freeing hostages. After speaking with Deputy Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau Moussa Abu Marzouk, Secretary General of the Palestinian Democratic Union Saleh Rafat, and senior Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine official Maher Taher, Mikhail Bogdanov released a statement about the meeting. “During...

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...