Kremlin confirmed the forthcoming visit of the Palestinian leader to Russia
A meeting with the head of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Mahmoud Abbas, is on Russian leader, Vladimir Putin’s schedule on May 11th. The Press Secretary for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed that preparations are being made for the Palestinian head’s visit, Interfax reports.
"Yes. The meeting is planned," Peskov said. However, he also stated that so far there is no intent to organize a meeting between the PNA head with Israeli leadership in Moscow.
Previously, the head of the Russian government, Dmitry Medvedev, visited the Palestinian state. He talked with Abbas in the city of Jericho, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority. The media adds that a visit by the head of the Russian state to the region is expected soon. However, the exact date of the visit has not been specified yet.
Earlier, an Israeli TV channel, citing the scientific staff of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, disseminated information that the head of the Palestinian Autonomy, Mahmoud Abbas, was a KGB officer in the 1980s. Studying the so-called Mitrokhin Archive – KGB documents taken to the UK by Vasily Mitrokhin, the staff found an entry in the name of Mahmoud Abbas, being born in 1935 in Palestine, on the list of KGB officers in 1983. He was identified as a KGB agent in Damascus, where Abbas was at that time working as an employee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The document mentions Abbas's conspiratorial name Krotov, but nothing is said about when he was recruited or what tasks he fulfilled.
Representatives of the Palestinian Authority called the promulgation of this document an Israeli attempt to discredit the head of the autonomous region, recalling that at that time the PLO cooperated with the Soviet Union so closely, that it did not need its agents among PLO’s ranks.