ON Wednesday of this past week a pair of seemingly strange bedfellows stood side-by-side in Moscow’s Red Square watching a parade of Russian military might.
President Vladimir Putin had his guest of honour next to him, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was wearing the shunned back and orange St George’s ribbon a bold symbol of past and present Russian military glory.
This ribbon has also been adopted as a totemic sign that Russia should return to the grand days of Soviet hegemony — including the reincorporation of those territories that were given independence when the Union collapsed in 1989.
Netanyahu’s attendance is not a new move to stay close to the Russians — the most senior political, strategic and military figures in Jerusalem regard Moscow as the best hope for some order in that chaotic failed state to Israel’s north, Syria.
With President Donald Trump this week announcing he would not renew US observance of the Iran nuclear and sanctions deal, Israel sees Russia as a vital player in heading off an all out shooting war with the mullahs in Tehran.
Read the article by Dennis Atkins, national affairs editor at The Courier-Mail.