Russia’s Putin blames West for Gaza crisis, says US needs global chaos
- Russian president said the ‘ruling elites of the US’ and their ‘satellites’ were behind conflicts in the world
- Putin blamed the West, Ukraine after mob stormed a Russian airport to hunt down passengers from Israel
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday sought to blame the West for the crisis in the Middle East, where Israel is bombing the Gaza Strip to try to eradicate Hamas militants who killed some 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in Israel on October 7.
In a televised statement to a meeting of members of his Security Council and the government and the heads of law enforcement agencies, Putin said the “ruling elites of the US” and their “satellites” stood behind the killing of Gaza’s Palestinians, and behind conflicts in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
“They need constant chaos in the Middle East. Therefore (the US) does its best to discredit those countries that insist on an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, on stopping the bloodshed, and are ready to make a real contribution to resolving the crisis, and not parasitise on it.”
Russia backs an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a two-state solution. It has also angered Israel by receiving a Hamas delegation in Moscow.
Having sent his army into Ukraine in February 2022 with the argument that Moscow had to free fellow Russian speakers from alleged oppression, Putin has for the last year or so cast his “special military operation” as a struggle for Russian survival against a US-led West determined to use Ukraine to crush and dismantle Russia.