Russia's Putin Heads Off for Tense Mideast Tour
Reuters
Date: 04-25-05
By Maria Golovnina
MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin will become the first Russian leader to visit Israel this week as part of a Middle East tour -- but Moscow's warming ties with Israel's arch-foes in the region may spoil the party.
Israel, a quarter of whose population have roots in Russia, is expected to press Putin to sever growing nuclear and military links with Iran and Syria, countries it believes have ties to terrorism, political commentators said.
In turn, Putin is likely to ask Israel to extradite Russian business tycoons, including media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky and former oil company YUKOS executive Leonid Nevzlin, who live in exile in Israel and face a variety of charges in Russia.
"But there will be no bombshells ... What we see is just a family scuffle between Russia and Israel," Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the international affairs committee in the upper house of parliament, said in the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
Putin first visits Egypt and then Israel on Wednesday for talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other officials in a two-day trip to be capped by a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The Soviet Union forged ties with Israel when the Jewish state was founded in 1948, but cut them after the 1967 Middle East War in which Israel captured Arab territory.
Moscow restored relations in 1991, shortly before the Soviet Union collapsed and after then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev allowed Jews to emigrate. Now about 1.5 million of Israel's 6.2 million people are of Russian origin.
Russia is a member of the so-called quartet of international mediators for the Middle East peace process along with the United Nations, the United States and the European Union. But Moscow has so far only played a minor role in the process.
Analysts see Putin's visit as part of Russia's wider bid to recoup its Soviet-era influence in the Middle East.
"But in terms of bilateral ties we should not expect too much of this visit," said Russian newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti.
"Israel is the only country where Moscow has powerful levers of influence. Almost a quarter of Israelis talk and think in Russian. But this potential remains largely unused by Russia."
SYRIANS AND IRANIANS
In an interview with Israeli media last week, Putin confirmed plans to sell short-ranged vehicle-mounted missiles to Syria, saying it would not threaten Israel's security.
But he added the missiles "will of course make it difficult to fly over the residence of the Syrian president," an apparent reference to a 2003 flight over the palace by Israeli jets.
Russia's construction of a nuclear reactor in Iran has also angered Israel, which, like Washington, says Tehran could use it to develop atomic weapons.
In an interview to Egyptian paper Al-Ahram, Putin said Russia's involvement in the project depended on Iran using the reactor only for peaceful purposes.
"We will go ahead with our obligations under Iran's civilian nuclear project on condition that international organizations ... will have full access to all Iranian nuclear projects and Iran gives up technology and research which could lead to creating nuclear weapons."
Source
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |
|