Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Moscow on Wednesday for a three-day visit ending in talks Friday with President Vladimir Putin and his successor-elect Dmitry Medvedev, according to dpa. The agenda is expected to focus on Middle East peace talks, with as Abbas to hold meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Moscow has ambitions to hold this summer a conference on the Middle East analogous to that in Annapolis conference in the US state of Maryland last November. Russia, a member of Middle East Quartet along with the European Union, the United Nations and the United States, has long emphasized its role as a chief negotiator in Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. Abbas has paid many visits to Moscow and analysts said Wednesday that enduring Russian military and financial aid to Palestine likely also motivated his visit. The Palestinian leader plans to meet with Muslim leaders as well as Russian Patriarch Alexey II in Moscow.
