Russian Ambassador to Iraq Elbrus Kutrashev: Russia Will Not Participate in Combat Operations in the Middle East; Nobody Is Coordinating Their Strikes with Us; We Faced Sanctions over “Fabricated” Massacres in Ukraine, Yet Nobody is Sanctioning Those Behind the War Crimes and Genocide in Gaza

Russian Ambassador to Iraq Elbrus Kutrashev said in an October 18, 2024 interview on Al-Iraqiya TV (Iraq) that Russia advocates for peace in the Middle East and will not participate in any combat operations, particularly since nobody is coordinating strikes in the region with Russia. He bemoaned the fact that Russia has been subjected to international pressure and sanctions due to “fabricated” massacres it has carried out in Ukraine, but that no measures have been taken or demands made to impose sanctions against the “well-known perpetrators” of the “actual war crimes and genocide” that are being committed “in plain sight” in the Gaza Strip. Kutrashev also said that Russia’s Western partner has turned into a Western enemy and that Europe is not a “pole” of its own in a multipolar world order but rather a servant of the United States.