On February 12, 2024, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) hosted a conference “Regional dynamics in the Middle East in the context of security and development challenges”. The goal of the meeting was to discuss key trends and current political processes in the Middle East. The substantive basis of the conference was the RIAC report “Regional Trends in the Middle East: Political and Economic Dynamics”, authored by Russian experts on Middle Eastern issues.
The welcome remarks were delivered by: Igor Ivanov, President at the RIAC; Alexander Aksenenok, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation, RIAC Vice-President; Aleksey Vasiliev, Honorary President of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), RIAC Member; Ivan Timofeev, Director General at the RIAC.
The conference encompassed four expert discussions.
On February 12, 2024, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) hosted a conference “Regional dynamics in the Middle East in the context of security and development challenges”. The goal of the meeting was to discuss key trends and current political processes in the Middle East. The substantive basis of the conference was the RIAC report “Regional Trends in the Middle East: Political and Economic Dynamics”, authored by Russian experts on Middle Eastern issues.
The welcome remarks were delivered by: Igor Ivanov, President at the RIAC; Alexander Aksenenok, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation, RIAC Vice-President; Aleksey Vasiliev, Honorary President of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), RIAC Member; Ivan Timofeev, Director General at the RIAC.
The conference encompassed four expert discussions.
The first session was devoted to the analysis of regional trends and security issues in the Middle East. Participants engaged in discussions concerning the political and economic trends. As part of this session, the presentation of the RIAC report, “Regional Trends in the Middle East: Political and Economic Dynamics”, was held. The experts participating in the session were: Andrey Kortunov, Academic Director at the RIAC; Viktor Smirnov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russian Federation, Head of the Department of Israel and Jewish Communities at the Institute of Oriental Studies (IOS) of the RAS; Alexander Yakovlev, Chief Researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Institute of the IOS RAS; Vladimir Bartenev, Professor and Leading Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Strategic Studies of the HSE University participated in the session.
The second session was devoted to the policies of non-regional actors in the Middle East. Experts discussed the major aspects of Russia, the United States, China, and India's respective policies towards the region. Among the experts who shared their views on the matter were: Andrey Baklanov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation, Professor at the School of International Regional Studies of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs of the HSE University; Maxim Suchkov, Director at the Institute for International Studies of the MGIMO University; Alexander Lomanov, Acting Deputy Director for Scientific Work of the IMEMO RAS, RIAC Member; Alexey Kupriyanov, Head of Center of the Indo-Pacific Region of the IMEMO RAS.
During the third session, experts discussed the dynamics of military conflicts in the Middle East. Participants exchanged views on the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as well as situations in Syria, Yemen and Libya. In addition, experts discussed the prospects for the settlement of the conflicts in the Middle East. Reports were presented by: Lyudmila Samarskaya, Research Fellow at the Center for Middle East Studies of the IMEMO RAS; Boris Dolgov, Leading Researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the IOS RAS; Sergey Serebrov, Senior Researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the IOS RAS; Grigory Lukyanov, Researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the IOS RAS.
The fourth session was dedicated to the regional policies of countries claiming regional leadership, including Iran, Turkey, Israel, as well as some Arab states. In addition, experts also discussed trends in regional relations. Speakers in this session were: Igor Matveev, Associate Professor of the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy of Russia of the MGIMO University; Vladimir Sazhin, Senior Researcher at the Center for Middle East Studies of the IOS RAS; Irina Svistunova, Senior Researcher at the Center for Middle East Studies of the IMEMO RAS; and Dmitry Maryasis, Editor-in-Chief of the Scientific Journal “Economy of the Middle East”.
The sessions were moderated by: Ivan Bocharov, Program Coordinator at the RIAC; Ibragim Ibragimov, Fellow Researcher at the Center for Middle East Studies of the IMEMO RAS; Grigory 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.
