Reports: Russia to Welcome Palestinian Leader, Chechen Strongman Offers to Help Jihad

In this Friday, May 10, 2019 file photo, Chechnya's regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov sp
AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev
John Hayward

Russian media on Monday reported that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will soon visit Moscow, with the date and agenda yet to be determined.

On the same day, Russia’s deranged puppet leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, declared his support for the Palestinian rape and murder of Israeli women and children and offered to send his forces to Gaza on a “peacekeeping mission.”

The Associated Press

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Feb. 12, 2018. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russia’s RBC News quoted Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Abdel Hafiz Nofal stating “an agreement has been reached that Mr. Abbas will come here to Moscow.”

“We are awaiting an official statement from the Kremlin, from the Russian side, about when the visit will take place,” Nofal said.

In another Russian media interview, Nofal said the Abbas government is maintaining “daily contacts” with Moscow as the Gaza crisis unfolds.

“Certainly, I stay in touch with Mr. Mikhail Bogdanov, a Russian deputy foreign minister, and Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov every day,” Nofal said.

“Our ambassador in New York is also a representative in daily contacts with Russian representatives,” he added.

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Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected to a four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005, last met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in October 2022 on the sidelines of a conference in Kazakhstan. 

On that occasion, Abbas said he only trusted the United States as a mediator if it acted as one of four members in a “quartet” that also included Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations.

“We don’t trust America and you know our position. We don’t trust it, we don’t rely on it, and under no circumstances can we accept that America is the sole party in resolving a problem,” Abbas told Putin, who responded by reiterating his support for a Palestinian state.

Kadyrov, meanwhile, reportedly said he “fully supports” the murderous actions of Hamas, “because Israel took their land and is now keeping them isolated.”

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The Chechen leader reportedly added that he was now “calling on everyone to end this war, to prevent it from spreading across the world,” in part because a Hamas rocket landed near a mosque Kadyrov built in a town near Jerusalem in 2014 to honor his father.

Early reports said the mosque took a direct hit from the terrorist rocket, but eyewitnesses later said the mosque was “intact” and holding prayer services as usual.

“I’m once again urging all Muslims, all citizens, and our state to support the truth and put an end to this war. Or send us there on a peacekeeping mission. We will decide who’s right and who’s wrong. We will stop those who continue fighting,” Kadyrov said.

Kadyrov sent fighters from a military unit known as Akhmat to support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Kadyrov claims he sent three divisions including 26,000 troops to Ukraine, although those numbers have not been independently verified. He has also claimed he personally led Chechen troops in battle against the Ukrainians.

The Akhmat unit was the first irregular force to sign a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry after it ordered all private military contractors (PMC) to swear allegiance to the Russian government. The refusal of the largest and most notorious of those PMCs, the Wagner Group, to sign such a conscription contract led directly to Wagner cofounder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s brief mutiny against Moscow in June. Prigozhin and most of Wagner’s senior leadership died in a highly suspicious plane crash in August.

Chechen forces in Ukraine gained a reputation for extreme brutality, although some analysts questioned their effectiveness, describing them as “cannon fodder” for Putin’s war effort due to their heavy casualties. Some of Kadryov’s troops are radical Islamists who fought for the Islamic State in Syria.

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