A “gift from heaven” for the Kremlin: the expression appears again and again in the comments of Western diplomats and external observers. Israel’s retaliatory strike in the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7 is a blessing for Russia in its war against Ukraine and its confrontation with the “collective West,” Moscow says.
After these attacks, the Russian media barely concealed their satisfaction, despite the risk of a general conflagration in the Middle East, including Syria. Aside from part of the fantasy – the idea that the United States would not be able to supply both Kiev and Tel Aviv with arms anyway – there is actually a reality: The resurgence of conflict in the Middle East provides a welcome distraction for Moscow and weakens the USA Western position on Ukraine. “The situation may work in Russia’s favor,” the popular daily Moskovsky Komsomolets summarized on October 9.
The issue goes beyond simply relegating the Ukraine issue to the hierarchy of television news. This is about the West’s efforts since February 2022 to isolate Russia and win over countries that are part of the Global South to their cause. These efforts, which have been crowned with relative success, are on the verge of being destroyed both by public opinion and by a number of governments in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. Isolation threatens… the Western bloc.
“Blessed bread for Putin”
The brutality of the Israeli response and the support it enjoys in Western capitals weakens two pillars of the Western discourse on Ukraine: Russia’s failure to comply with international law and the crimes committed by its army. The comparison between the Russian and Israeli occupation, which the West does not want to put on the same level, was not long in coming. Likewise, the differentiated treatment of possible war crimes revives the old and recurring discourse of “double standards” and Western “hypocrisy” in the Israeli-Palestinian question. In other words, given the prevailing fever, is it difficult to avoid comparisons between the Russian bombings of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and Israel’s decision to cut off power to Gaza?
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“It’s a godsend for Putin,” admits a European diplomat. “The entire discourse and efforts of Westerners are being weakened,” notes Tatiana Kastouéva-Jean from the French Institute of International Relations. This is a blessing for Moscow, which hopes to emerge from its isolation on the international stage thanks to the opening of this new front in the Middle East. »
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