Tel Aviv: Russia has enhanced its efforts to gain more influence in the Middle East and Gulf regions. Moscow takes advantage of the fact that the US practically has withdrawn mainly from the Gulf region to achieve greater influence.
The highly-classified Pentagon documents that have emerged over the past several weeks include specifics regarding the level of collaboration between Russia and important Arab States and cast new light on those relationships.
The documents, which primarily discuss the conflict in Ukraine in various contexts, demonstrate that despite Russia’s disadvantages on the battlefield there, the economic sanctions placed on it, and US efforts to isolate it, Russia is still a significant player in the web of interests and factors that states in the area take into account.
In a paper written by Yoel Guzansky and Arakady Mil-man from the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel (INSS), the researchers say that new information indicates that US influence in the Middle East has been gradually declining, and Arab States in the region seek to mitigate risks by not solely identifying with one side or the other.
“This revelation joins reports from the past year regarding the extent of assistance to Russia: the UAE and Saudi Arabia, for example, purchased Russian oil – while bypassing sanctions on Moscow – and apparently sold it at a profit. The UAE also became a central destination for wealthy Russians who evaded sanctions, which prompted a flourishing real estate market in Dubai that became one of the transit hubs for goods into Russia for the “grey imports,” mentions the paper and further adds, “The number of Russian “tourists” in the UAE is now nearly one million. It was likewise reported that there are some 100 private planes owned by wealthy Russians parked at Dubai International Airport.”
According to the researchers, in addition there has been a recent improvement in ties between Saudi Arabia and Russia. A prisoner exchange involving Russia and Ukraine that involved the release of a Ukrainian official connected to the Russian president took place with Saudi assistance in September 2022, and Saudi involvement in other exchanges persisted.
“A central factor in Russia’s importance to the Gulf States is its good relations with the Iranian regime, and Moscow’s ability to influence Tehran’s decisions. In the eyes of the Gulf States, the US failed to prevent Iran from going nuclear and is insufficiently attentive to their security issues, even as Iran has strengthened militarily and positioned itself at the nuclear threshold. The relationship with Russia is therefore vital to them as leverage over Iran,” the researchers write in the paper.
