Putin pledges to help Palestinians

April 29, 2005

Today in Ramallah Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to aid Palestinians. In a press conference held after talks with Mahmoud Abbas, Putin said that Palestinians cannot fight terrorism with slingshots and stones. He pledged to give airplane equipment, helicopters, communications equipment and to train security forces. The Russian President was cheered by the Palestinian crowd prior to the conference.

Putin was on a four day tour of the Middle East, where he visited Egypt, Israel and Palestine. This was the first high level visit of a Russian official to Egypt in 40 years, which was followed the next day by a visit to Israel &mdash; a historic first, since no other Russian president has ever visited Israel.