Valdai Club

Does Russia need a new Middle East strategy? This is the first question that springs to mind. After all, Russia has been quite successful, in some cases even outperforming the Soviet Union. In fact, Russia has succeeded in developing a close relationship with Israel while maintaining its trustbased ties with Palestine, as well as building an alliance with Syria all while strengthening relations with Iran, which used to call the USSR a “Little Satan”. Who could have imagined all that? Could it even have occurred to Soviet leaders to call Saudi Arabia a strategic partner like Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak did recently?

Life moves on, and the Middle East is rapidly changing. Just as importantly, the global balance of power is also shifting. Russia is constantly on the move too, with all the developments in and around it, as well as its regional and global functions.

Russia’s main domestic and foreign policy priorities lie outside the Middle East region. With everything changing so quickly, how do you save what you already have while keeping up with the latest developments and trends, but without overexerting oneself on matters that are too far to be worth the effort? The answer to this question lies in the constant effort to improve, fine-tune, and amend Russia’s Middle East strategy in its structural and functional components.

Russia’s policy stands on three main pillars: the first one deals with ensuring security and defence, the second one consists of building Greater Eurasia, and the third pillar is designed to create a favourable international framework for Russia’s technological transition and achieving technological breakthroughs.