MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin hailed Russia’s ties with the United Arab Emirates on Friday as he met the leader of the oil-rich nation, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, in Saint Petersburg. "The Emirates are a very good partner,” Putin said in televised comments at the start of the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of an economic summit in Russia’s second city. Putin thanked Sheikh Mohamed for the role the UAE has played in prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine and Russia and the United States.
Sheikh Mohamed, widely known as MBZ, said he was in favor of "de-escalation” and a "political solution” to the Ukraine conflict during the talks, in which the pair discussed their countries’ "strategic partnership”, according to the UAE official news agency WAM. Russia and UAE have closely cooperated as members of the OPEC+ oil alliance and Dubai is one of the rare world capitals to have maintained direct flights to Moscow following the start of the Ukraine conflict in Feb 2022. Meanwhile, Putin on Friday said Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, was a "disgrace” to people of his faith.
"I have a lot of Jewish friends,” Putin told the forum in Saint Petersburg. "They say that Zelensky is not Jewish, that he is a disgrace to the Jewish people. I’m not joking,” he added. Moscow claims Ukraine’s treatment of Russian speakers in the western-backed country is comparable to the actions of Nazi Germany. These allegations have been contested by the Ukrainian government and the country’s Jewish community. Putin said Moscow "must fight” neo-Nazism, adding that Russia had suffered enormous losses during the country’s fight against Nazi Germany in World War II.
"We will never forget it,” Putin said. "Why is no one listening to us?” Putin’s insult caused uproar in Ukraine. Ukraine’s chief rabbi said he was proud of Zelensky. "And not only me. I think the whole world is proud of him,” rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman told Ukrainian news agency UNIAN. "He did not flee and is doing everything to help the Ukrainian people,” he added. The rabbi also said that there were no neo-Nazi forces in Ukraine.
"There are decent people in Ukraine who are protecting their homeland,” he was quoted as saying. Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk, who stressed he was of Jewish heritage himself, said: "Today Zelensky is the embodiment of the fight for freedom. And freedom is one of the main values of the Jewish people.” The American Jewish Committee tweeted: "Putin’s attempt to smear President Zelenskyy’s Jewish heritage is a desperate and disgraceful move.”