On March 16, 2026, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) hosted a conference “Conflicts in Middle East and North Africa: Escalation Factors and Transformation Tracks”. The meeting was aimed at discussing the contemporary trends of the conflicts in Middle East and North Africa. The RIAC report “Conflicts in Middle East and North Africa: Current State and Possible Dynamics” authored by Russian experts on Middle East and the regional conflicts issue was the substantive basis of the conference.
The welcome remarks were delivered by: Igor Ivanov, RIAC President; Mikhail Margelov, RIAC Vice-President and Board of Trustees Member, Executive Vice President of “Etalon” Group.
Plenary session was attended by Vladimir Morozov, Vice-Rector for HR, Professor at the Department of Diplomacy, MGIMO University; Alexander Maryasov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation; Vasily Kuznetsov, Deputy Director for Science of the Institute of Oriental Studies (IOS) of the RAS, RIAC Member. Elena Karpinskaya, RIAC Director of Programs, moderated the session.
On March 16, 2026, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) hosted a conference “Conflicts in Middle East and North Africa: Escalation Factors and Transformation Tracks”. The meeting was aimed at discussing the contemporary trends of the conflicts in Middle East and North Africa. The RIAC report “Conflicts in Middle East and North Africa: Current State and Possible Dynamics” authored by Russian experts on Middle East and the regional conflicts issue was the substantive basis of the conference.
The welcome remarks were delivered by: Igor Ivanov, RIAC President; Mikhail Margelov, RIAC Vice-President and Board of Trustees Member, Executive Vice President of “Etalon” Group.
Plenary session was attended by Vladimir Morozov, Vice-Rector for HR, Professor at the Department of Diplomacy, MGIMO University; Alexander Maryasov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation; Vasily Kuznetsov, Deputy Director for Science of the Institute of Oriental Studies (IOS) of the RAS, RIAC Member. Elena Karpinskaya, RIAC Director of Programs, moderated the session.
The RIAC report “Conflicts in Middle East and North Africa: Current State and Possible Dynamics” was presented during the first session. The participants discussed the key features of the conflicts at the current stage and their possible transformation tracks. This session speakers were the report authors: Andrey Kortunov, Valdai Discussion Club Expert; Luiza Khlebnikova, Associate Professor at the Department of Jewish Studies, the Institute of Asia and Africa, MSU, Head of the Interdivisional Research Group on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict of the IOS RAS; Vladimir Sazhin, Senior Researcher at the Center for Middle East Studies of the IOS RAS; Nikolay Sukhov, Leading Researcher at the Center for the Middle East Studies of the IMEMO RAS; Sergey Serebrov, Senior Researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the IOS RAS; Timur Kadyrmambetov, Research Fellow at the Center for the Middle East Studies of the IMEMO RAS; Vasily Kuznetsov, Deputy Director for Science of the IOS RAS, RIAC Member. The session was moderated by Ivan Bocharov, RIAC Program Manager.
The second session was devoted to the escalation factors and triggers of the conflicts in Middle East and North Africa. Special attention was paid to the economic and ideological aspects of the issue, as well as the issue of non-state actors. Reports were presented by: Dmitriy Maryasis, Editor-in-Chief of the “Economics of Middle East” journal; Grigoriy Lukyanov, Researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the IOS RAS; Ruslan Mamedov, Scientific Advisor of the Evgeny Primakov Center for International Cooperation, Senior Researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the IOS RAS; Andrey Zeltyn, Senior Lecturer at the HSE University School of Asian Studies. Nikolay Surkov, Head of the Group on Common Problem in the Region, Center for the Middle East Studies of the IMEMO RAS moderated the session.
The third session was dedicated to the extra-regional actors’ role in the dynamics and settlement of the conflicts in Middle East and North Africa. Speakers at this session were: Andrey Evseenko, Deputy Director for Science of the Institute for U.S. and Canada Studies; Viktor Smirnov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russian Federation, Head of the Department of Israel and Jewish Communities of the IOS RAS; Vasily Kashin, Director of the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies at HSE University, RIAC member; Pyotr Topychkanov, Head of the Section for New Challenges in South and Southeast Asia of the IMEMO RAS; Lida Oganisyan, Senior Researcher at the Department of International Political Problems of the IMEMO RAS. This session was moderated by Konstantin Sukhoverkhov, RIAC Program Manager.
Other leading Russian experts on the Middle East and Middle Eastern politics of external players also participated in the discussion.
