The Institute for the Study of the War (ISW) has claimed that the Kremlin are trying to “drive a wedge” between the West and Ukraine.
Propagandists have exploited the Hamas attacks against Israel to “advance several information operations intended to reduce US and Western support and attention to Ukraine.”
Key Kremlin officials have blamed the West for the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas.
The Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that the US was too busy with Ukraine and should have also been “busy with” solving the Palestinian-Israeli settlement.”
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The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the West are blocking all efforts Western governments and Russia in the Middle East.
According to the ISW, Russia is “implicitly blaming the West for the current fighting” between Hamas the Israeli armed forces and the Lebanese military group Hezbollah.
In its assessment, the ISW wrote, “These Kremlin narratives target Western audiences to drive a wedge in military support for Ukraine, seek to demoralise Ukrainian society by claiming Ukraine will lose international support, and intend to reassure Russian domestic audiences that the international society will ignore Ukraine’s war effort.
The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that relations between Moscow and Tehran have been “strengthened in recent years.”
The MoD said in their latest intelligence briefing that Russia’s partnership with Iran has strengthened in recent years which has “almost certainly been accelerated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
“The Iranian military aid to Russia’s campaign in Ukraine has included hundreds of one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and artillery munitions.
“Iranian OWA UAVs have been a core element of Russia’s campaign of long-range strikes into Ukraine. The arrangement has now been extended to include assembling and production of these UAVs, under licence, in a facility in Russia.
“Russo-Iranian diplomatic and economic ties have also intensified. Russia’s engagement with Iran though multinational forums will almost certainly increase following Iran’s recent admission into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and its invitation to join the economic BRICS forum.
“Iran recently claimed that Russia had invested USD $2.76 billion into Iran in 2022-23. Economic ties are highly likely to deepen as Russia seeks to mitigate sanctions.”
