The eyes of the world are on Israel. And Russia plans to take advantage of it. Since Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist terrorist organization which controls the Gaza Strip, launched an offensive in Israeli territory on Saturday, October 7, “the Kremlin is exploiting [these attacks] to disseminate information intended to reduce support and attention” of Westerners on the situation in Ukraine, analyzes the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
With this media offensive, Moscow is pursuing several objectives: “to create a gap in military support” for Kiev, to divert the eyes of the Western public from the war waged in Ukraine since February 2022, to demoralize Ukrainian society and to reassure the Russians “of the fact that the international community will ignore the war effort” of the Ukrainian troops.
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Thus, several “key sources in the Russian information space” have been focusing their coverage on the situation in the Middle East without interruption since Saturday. “This could have an impact on the information environment around the war in Ukraine in the days or weeks to come,” warns in a note published on October 7 the think tank, which has been publishing for more than a an very precise daily report on the Ukrainian conflict.
Russia mainly accuses the West of neglecting conflicts in the Middle East “for the benefit of its support for Ukraine,” observes the ISW.
“This is what Washington and its allies should be addressing. The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been going on for decades, and the United States is the key player,” Vice President of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev accused on X (ex-Twitter). He added: “Instead of actively working towards the Palestinian-Israeli settlement, these morons have interfered in our affairs and are providing large-scale aid to the neo-Nazis, pitting the two closely-knit peoples against each other. . What can stop America’s maniacal obsession with inciting conflict across the planet?”
Same refrain from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which places responsibility for the current conflict on the West.
On Telegram, Russian propagandist Sergey Mardan prophesies that “the world will stop thinking about Ukraine (…) and will once again work to put out the eternal fire in the Middle East.”
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Other bloggers claimed, again on encrypted messaging, that Hamas and Hezbollah were using “weapons and ammunition from Ukrainian warehouses.” “Because of the phenomenal corruption of the Kiev regime, even in Israel, few people doubt that the weapons that the West sent to Ukraine to kill Russians are now killing Jews in the Middle East,” says one ’them.
Claims quickly denied by the Ukrainian Military Media Center. “In reality, the Ukrainians could not do this, because our Western partners closely monitor the weapons and military equipment that they supply to us to fight against the Russian aggressor,” the note adds.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was extremely concerned about the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Around a thousand deaths have already been recorded since Saturday morning. More than 600 people have been killed in Israel and 2,000 injured, including 200 “in critical condition”, according to government data. In the Gaza Strip, 413 Palestinians including 78 children and 41 women were killed, local authorities announced, and 2,300 injured.
