MOSCOW – Palestine president Mahmud Abbas visits Russia on Monday in a bidto secure Russian President Vladimir Putin’s support following Washington’srecognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The Palestine leader was set to visit Moscow two weeks after a visit byIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Abbas has refused any contact with US President Donald Trump’sadministration since Washington’s recognition oflink>Jerusalemlink> as the Israeli capital at the end oflast year. Abbas is due to speak at the United Nations Security Council onFebruary 20.

Palestinians see the US decision, which broke with years of internationaldiplomacy, as a denial of their claim to Eastlink>Jerusalemlink> as the capital of an eventuallink>Palestinianlink> state.

Israel took control of East link>Jerusalemlink> in the 1967 Six-Day War, annexed itand later declared it the indivisible capital of Israel.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has accused Abbas of lacking thecourage needed to forge a peace deal with Israel.

Abbas in turn has rejected any mediation by Washington in theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict and has promised his people to work towardsfull recognition of a link>Palestinianlink> state by the United Nations.

Alexander Shumilin, a Middle East scholar at the Institute for US andCanadian Studies, called Abbas’s visit ‘an attempt to cosy up tolink>Russia link> ,a consistent ally, and to stop Netanyahu leading Moscow astray during animprovement in Russia-Israeli ties’.

Netanyahu visited link>Russialink> on January 29 and along with Putinattended a memorial ceremony at the Jewish museum in Moscow for the victimsof Nazi camps. He took the opportunity to accuse Iran of wanting to’destroy’ the Jewish state.

In turn, the Russian president likened antisemitism to ‘Russophobia’ andsaid link>Russialink> and Israel were ‘cooperating closely’,particularly against ‘attempts to falsify history’.

Chances ‘close to zero’For Shumilin, Monday’s visit ‘is a necessarypolitical gesture for Abbas but can do little in the practical sense’.

‘It is also definitely not worth expecting a breakthrough from this visit,’he added.

In 2016 link>Russialink> offered to host one-on-one talks withoutpreconditions between Abbas and Netanyahu but these never materialised.

In January, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov estimated that chancesof resuming direct talks between the two sides in the current situationwere ‘close to zero’.

Lavrov also said ‘we understand the emotions’ Palestinians feel towardsTrump.

‘We keep hearing in recent months that the US is about to publish some’major deal’ that… will satisfy everyone,’ he said. But he added thatlink>Russialink> ‘hasnot seen or heard of such a document or even any statement’.

With relations between Washington and Moscow at a record low for thepost-Cold War era, Abbas may be expecting that ‘Russia-US relations willget even worse and then link>Russialink> could do something to spite the US’,Shumilin said.

On November 29, 2012, the United Nations designated Palestine as anon-member observer state after a vote by the General Assembly.

That enabled the Palestinians to join international organisations and theInternational Criminal Court, though they did not become a full UN memberstate.

link>Palestinianlink> statehood is recognised by morethan 130 countries.