Russia Strengthening Ties to America's Enemies

Under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, Russia is strengthening its ties with some of America’s worst enemies. In Asia, it is bolstering its relationship with North Korea, the most brutal dictatorship on earth and a nation that has threatened to annihilate America. Russia’s legislative body voted recently to cancel nearly $10 billion in debt which stems from loans made during the era of the Soviet Union and pledged to help build a railroad and gas pipeline through North Korea to South Korea across Siberia (“Putin Looking to Get Better Ties with North Korea,” The World Post, June 4, 2014). One expert called the new development a “sort of renaissance” of the Russia-North Korean relationship. In the Middle East, Russia has pledged to build two more nuclear power plants in Iran (“Iran, Russia Agree to Continue Nuclear Cooperation,” ITAR-TASS, May 29, 2014). This comes as Iran’s “supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that negotiations over the country’s nuclear program are over and jihad will continue until America is destroyed. He said that those who are negotiating with the West “commit treason” (“Iran’s Supreme Leader: Jihad Will Continue until America Is No More,” Daily Caller, May 25, 2014). In Bible prophecy, Russia is the Gog and Magog that will arm and lead a great military alliance to its destruction on Israel’s hills (Ezekiel 38-39). Russia has a history of anti-Semitism that stems to ancient times. The Russian Czars stirred up animosity against the Jews by spreading lies about them. One of the chief propaganda cries of Russian communism was “Zionism is Racism.” Russia has been arming Israel’s Muslim enemies since the early 1950s. When Israel penetrated the Sinai Peninsula in 1956 to force Egypt to allow free movement for its ships, Russia threatened her with annihilation (Moshe Dayan, Diary of the Sinai Campaign, 1966, p. 185). In 1984, the U.S. ambassador dealing with human rights under the Helsinki Accords said, “Berlin was once the world capital of anti-Semitism; I am afraid that today it is Moscow.” Pravda, Russia’s official government newspaper, featured an article on June 30, 2002, entitled “Explosion of Anti-Semitism in Russia.” The Israel Insider, June 30, 2005, stated: “It seems that just as anti-Semitism was at the very core of the old Russia; it is at the very core of the new Russia.” Anti-Semitic papers such as Russkaya Pravda, Vitaz and Peresvet are sold on Moscow streets and in subway stations and some political parties use anti-Semitic statements to garner support.

(Friday Church News Notes, August 1, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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