Once again Moscow staged a familiar performance: dramatic statements, accusations of “unprovoked aggression,” and stories about how somewhere in the Middle East people were peacefully learning Russian, playing music, and celebrating “Russian-Lebanese friendship.”

The reason for this sudden wave of outrage was an Israeli airstrike in the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon on March 9, 2026. The strike destroyed a building that housed what was called the House of Russian Culture.

According to the center’s director, Assaad Diya, no one was killed — staff had already left the building after the escalation of fighting in the region.

Shortly afterward, Russia’s government agency Rossotrudnichestvo released an official statement describing the strike as an “unprovoked act of aggression” and insisting that the center had no military activity whatsoever.

But there is one detail that tends to disappear from these statements.

Southern Lebanon is not a neutral cultural landscape. It is territory long dominated by Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militant organization that effectively controls large parts of the region.

And it is precisely Hezbollah’s infrastructure that the Israel Defense Forces are targeting during the current........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)