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Middle East Review of International Affairs
Putin and the Middle East
by Robert O. Freedman
*
Introduction
Since August 1999 when he became Russia's prime minister and especially since January 2000 when he succeeded Boris Yeltsin as president, Vladimir Putin has strengthened his control at home while generally continuing the main lines of Russia's post-Soviet foreign policy. This article examines his handling of relations with three key countries for Moscow: Iran, Iraq, and Turkey.
One of the most striking aspects of the Putin presidency has been his ability to bring quasi-independent players in Russian domestic and foreign policy under tighter centralized control. Thus Putin has all but eliminated the political influence of oligarchs Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky and deprived them of their media outlets. He has also replaced Yevgeny Adamov, head of the Ministry of Atomic energy, who had a habit of trying to make nuclear deals with Iran not approved of by the Kremlin.
The powerful gas monopoly, GASPROM, heavily involved in Central Asian and Middle Eastern policy, had its director, Ram Vakhirev replaced by Alexei Miller, while the Defense Ministry had its leader, Defense Minister Igor Sergeev, replaced by the Secretary of the National Security Council Sergei Ivanov. Putin also changed interior ministers, set up plenipotentiaries to oversee Russia's 89 regions, and consolidated Russia's arms sales agencies into Rosoboronoexport in an effort to gain greater control over a major source of foreign exchange.
Putin also put a great deal of emphasis on improving Russia's economy, not only through the sale of arms, oil and natural gas (the Russian economy was blessed with high oil and natural gas prices during much of his first two years in office) but also on expanding Russia's business ties abroad, and business interests were to play an increasingly significant role in Putin's foreign policy. Making Putin's task easier was the support he received from the Duma, especially from his Edinsvo (Unity) party, which was a clear contrast to the hostile relations Yeltsin had had with the Duma from 1993 to his resignation as President in December 1999.
This essay will examine the question of continuity and change in Russian foreign policy toward the Middle East under Putin with case studies of Russia's policy toward its three most important Middle Eastern partners: Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, which also happen to be, along with Israel, its most important Middle Eastern trading partners.
Full PDF Document, 16 pages, 95kB
Endnotes
Note *: Dr. Robert O. Freedman is Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone Professor of Political Science at Baltimore Hebrew University, and Visiting Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Soviet Policy Toward the Middle East Since 1970; Moscow and the Middle East: Soviet Policy Since the Invasion of Afghanistan; and Soviet-Israel Relations Under Gorbachev. Back