On March 11, 2025, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) hosted a conference “Extra-Regional actors in the Middle East”
On March 11, 2025, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) hosted a conference “Extra-Regional actors in the Middle East”. The goal of the meeting was to discuss the Middle East’s external players' policies transformation ...
... coordination in the Middle East? Will Russia continue its “business as usual” aimed at maintaining the existing status-quo or will it be forced to review and to revise its positions towards Israel, Palestinians, Iran and its main partners in the Arab world? Let us have a look at the most important pieces of the rich and diverse Middle East mosaic, namely—on Israel, Palestine, Iran and the Arab Gulf states.
Israel
The Russian-Israeli relations started experiencing problems long before the US 2024 elections. In particular, the launch of the special military operation in Ukraine ...
Arab countries are not ready to significantly transform their policies and become actively involved in the conflict in the Middle East
Over fifty years ago, in October 1973, the largest energy crisis in history erupted. It was provoked by an oil embargo imposed by members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), as well as Egypt and Syria. The ...
The Inevitability of Sino–Russian Cooperation in the Middle East
Hamas’ incursion into Israel last October inflicted casualties never seen before in Israeli history, prompting an Israeli response which indiscriminately targeted militants and civilians. Aside from reopening a 76-year-old wound, causing ...
... known that Islam does not approve of card games. It is believed card games lead to gambling and create terrible addictions that distract people from spiritual growth and improvement. However, the complex, confusing, and often dramatic events in the Middle East inevitably evoke associations with it being a card game, where the stakes are high and the deck is intricately shuffled.
Andrey Kortunov:
Russia in the MENA Region amid the Ukrainian Crisis
Following this somewhat arbitrary analogy, the role ...
The book was presented by Igor Matveev, the author of the book, Senior Researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS
On May 12, 2022, there was a presentation of the book dedicated to the modern economic legislation of the Arab countries on the example of Syria. The event was held at the State Historic Public Library of Russia (SHPL). The book was presented by Igor Matveev, the author of the book, Senior Researcher at the Center for Arab and...
... population for justice.
Despite the fact that the protesters primarily addressed their demands to their own governments, there is another aspect related to external forces. Before speaking about this, we must indicate that we are talking primarily about the Arab world that suffered during the Arab Spring. There is a difference between the Middle East—a British-designed construction to designate countries on the maritime way to India—and the Arab world. The Arab world includes Arab states, while the Israelis, Iranians or Turks are considered by many representatives of Arab nationalism ...
... Libya, Egypt, partially Iraq and South Sudan.
"There is a serious identity crisis rooted in a number of deep inner tensions as well as meddling in the region from abroad," Naumkin pointed out.
According to him, the collapse of states in the Middle East and the emergence of new states within this trend are not what the region needs today.
"What we’re witnessing now is the fact that the regional center of power has moved. Previously, there were three pillars of the Arab world – Egypt, Syria and Iraq. Now, their role has decreased and the balance changed towards other Arab nations, like Saudi Arabia, or beyond the Arab world, to non-Arab countries, like Iran, Turkey and Israel. They are much powerful today,...
... on the Iranian nuclear dossier? Decision makers in the Kremlin might be generally anti-Western and anti-US, but they are definitely not crazy. They should understand that Russia has no resources and no interest in replacing the United States in the Middle East as the next hegemonic power. And if Washington does withdraw from the Arab world, it is likely to leave behind itself a vacuum to be filled with radical fundamentalist forces equally hostile to the West and to Russia. Russia needs US in the region, tough it insists that the current American policies in the Middle East starting ...