... grew into a multilateral strategic partnership on a broader range of Middle East problems. The United States, all the mistakes and blunders of the US Middle East policies notwithstanding, remained the unquestionable external hegemon of the Arab world. Russia could hope for only very modest progress in dealing with select Arab nations like Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.
The relative stability of the region started to crumble in the wake of the Arab Spring. The changing situation presented Moscow both new challenges and new opportunities. On the one hand, the Kremlin had reasons to be concerned about a spillover effect of the Arab Spring, particularly in the post-Soviet Central Asia, but also ...
Contacts between Russians and Arabs go deep into history. It is interesting that some of the first credible ... ... Russian Diasporas engaged in business, cultural exchanges, education and tourism.
The Arab Spring of 2011 – 2012 changed many fundamentals in the region. Many of authoritarian... ... application of this new approach was, of course, the Moscow engagement into the civil war in Syria. In this bloody and protracted conflict, Moscow demonstrated much more than its...
... to the Arab Spring, the region confronted in 2014-2016 a sharp decrease of oil prices, which put into question most of the economic and social development plans of energy producing Arab nations.
Recently we have seen a more active interaction between Russian and Saudi leaders though major differences in approaching the Syrian situation remain unresolved.
If in the West the Arab Spring was initially met by many with hopes and even with enthusiasm, in Russia the political mainstream from the very beginning was expressing deep skepticism and concerns about the likely outcomes of the ongoing regional transformation. Furthermore,...
In the wake of Turkey’s downing of a Russian military jet that violated its airspace and Russia’s resulting casualties, tensions are certainly on the rise. Despite ... ... positions/villages—part of a series of Russian bombings in recent days that have targeted Turkmen—on the border area of Turkey and Syria. Turkey is supporting these Turkmen rebels against Assad that Russia is bombing, and had previously asked Russia not to ...
Two-and-a-half-years into the Syrian conflict, the balance of power in the embattled state continues to evolve between ... ... Deraa, Syria’s southwest, broke out, Bashar al-Assad had been convinced that the Arab spring’s revolutionary momentum would not spill into Syria. The regime seemed... ... Syria escalated, a regional conflict morphed into an issue of international concern. Russia, Iran, Lebanon’s militia group Hizbullah, and China backed the Assad regime...
... (self-)debilitating government: divinization of the post and personalization of power. The current state of the MENA republics affected by the Arab Spring as well as that of the GCC monarchies provides the best proof of this.
For one thing, as it now seems, the euphorically ... ... UK, Israel and Turkey too) as dangerous exposure to a neighboring (increasingly anticipated as assertive) Iran as well as to Russia and China behind it. Right now, Syria pays a proxy-war price for that: This multi-religious country of subtle ancient cultural layers may end up entirely combusted,...
