Putin says Israel suffered cruel attack but its response is cruel too

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Israel was replying to an attack of unprecedented cruelty by using cruel methods of its own.

Putin told reporters that Russia understood the "logic of events" in the Middle East, where Israel has laid siege to the Gaza Strip and pounded it with air strikes in response to a weekend attack by Hamas militants who killed over 1,300 people.

"Israel is replying on a large scale and also with quite cruel methods," Putin said during a visit to Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.

He said that "even in the United States" scenarios for Gaza were being discussed that were comparable to the siege of the Soviet city of Leningrad (now St Petersburg) by Nazi Germany in World War Two.

"In my view it is unacceptable," Putin said. "More than 2 million people live there. Far from all of them support Hamas by the way, far from all. But all of them have to suffer, including women and children. Of course it's hard for anyone to agree with this."

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Putin reiterated his call for the crisis to be resolved by negotiation, saying Russia could help because it has relations with both sides.

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