Russian prosecutor declines to label Hamas as “terrorists” – Media

According to reports, officials clarified that such a classification has no legal foundation.

According to the Mash Telegram, Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has declined to label the militant Palestinian group Hamas as a terrorist organisation. Because of the movement’s activities in Israel, officials had been asked to take action against it.

Mash claims that in defending its choice, the Prosecutor General’s Office stated that no criminal prosecution against a Hamas member has ever been brought on Russian soil.

Officials reportedly told the Telegram channel, “This means that it would be wrong to recognise the Palestinian movement as terrorist.”

The reaction came after Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov received a formal petition from Ivan Melnikov, vice president of the International Committee for the Defence of Human Rights’ Russian branch, requesting that Hamas be classified as a terrorist organisation. Melnikov mentioned that Hamas had killed “at least 900 civilians,” including Russians, and had kidnapped a sizable number of hostages across all age groups.

Although Russia has not formally designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation, it has denounced the extremist organization’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,400 Israelis. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, called the event a “terrorist attack.”

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Meanwhile, Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza, which have killed about 9,000 Palestinians so far, according to Palestinian sources, have drawn criticism from Moscow.

Last week, Putin asserted that Israel’s activities in the Palestinian enclave are fueling the war and emphasised that the “horrible events currently unfolding in Gaza… cannot be justified by anything.”

Moscow has always demanded a truce in Gaza and stressed the need of keeping lines of communication open with both parties in the hopes of resolving the long-standing dispute in a just and peaceful manner.

Putin is also one of those who has continuously supported a two-state solution predicated on UN Security Council rulings.

Meanwhile, regional instability cannot be addressed “without the creation of a Palestinian state through negotiations,” according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He continued, “Until then, Israel will always be under threat.”