MOSCOW, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Russian leaders sent messages of condolence to Palestinians praising Yasser Arafat as a peacemaker who spent his life fighting for his people.
In a statement, President Vladimir Putin said Arafat "dedicated his entire life to the just cause of the Palestinian people, to the struggle for the exercise of their inalienable right to establish an independent state of their own," Itar-Tass reported.
"The contribution made by the head of the PNA (Palestine National Authority) to the strengthening of Russo-Palestinian friendly relations is highly appreciated in Russia," Putin said in the message to PLO Secretary Mahmoud Abbas, acting PNA head Ruhi Fattouh and PNA Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.
Citing the "hard conditions of political instability" Arafat faced, Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow cited Arafat for his work for peace in the region, which was marked by the 1994 Nobel Prize for Peace, Novisti reported.
