Pres Putin:   “I wish to express my sincere condolences to all Israelis and citizens of other nations who lost family members in the October 7 attacks.  But it is clear to us that innocent people should not be held accountable for crimes committed by others.  The fight against terrorism cannot be carried out according to the notorious principle of collective responsibility.  Our main task today is to stop the bloodshed and violence.  Hundreds of thousands are left without food, water, shelter, medical care.  Our main task is to stop the bloodshed and violence.  Otherwise the further escalation of the crisis may lead to extremely dangerous and devastating consequences.  We see some powerful groups trying to provoke further escalation, to involve as many other peoples and countries as possible in the conflict, using them for their own selfish interest. They want to unleash a wave of real chaos and hatred, not only in the Middle East but beyond.

The West is fomenting religious hatred and intolerance to “divide and conquer” the world, to maintain a “new world order” that amounts to dominance and colonialism.  Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and Russophobia are being used as weapons against a multipolar world.

The West sees how the process of forming a multipolar world order is gaining momentum. And in order to restrain the development of independent, sovereign countries, to split the world majority, they use the same means. These forces want “the epidemic of violence and hatred” to engulf not just the Middle East but to Eurasia.

Muslims are being set against Jews, calling for ‘war with the infidels’.  Shiites are pitted against Sunnis, Orthodox Christians against Catholics. In Europe, they turn a blind eye to blasphemy and vandalism against Muslim shrines. In a number of countries, Nazi criminals and anti-Semites, with the blood of Holocaust victims on their hands, are openly glorified at the official level. In Ukraine, they are moving towards banning the canonical Orthodox Church and deepening the church schism.

The goal of all those actions is to increase instability in the world, to divide cultures, peoples, world religions, and to provoke a conflict of civilizations. Meanwhile, they talk about some kind of ‘new world order’, whose essence hasn’t changed: hypocrisy, double standards, claims to exclusivity, to global dominance, to the preservation of an essentially neocolonial system.”