President Sadat, had an old saying during the Middle East crisis and peace negotiations with Israel that ninety-nine percent of the cards were in the hands of the Americans. Sadat was right and, but the collapse of the Soviet Union led to confirm his saying and prove his wisdom. I wonder if he would remain in his vision today or would he change his mind?
In the last five years, the Kremlin has been less interested in Russia s economic growth than in strengthening Russia s geopolitical influence. Back in 2014, following Russia s annexation of Crimea and its military intervention in eastern Ukraine, Moscow - imposed by economic sanctions - seemed isolated. Western leaders criticized President Putin believing that their criticism and the pressure of sanctions on the Kremlin would change the behavior of the Russian government, and even US President Barack Obama disregarded Russia as a regional power.
Now Russia is restoring its global influence as it intervened in the last U.S. presidential election in 2016 according to US intelligence agencies, and seeks to expand its influence in Africa and Latin America and exploit divisions in Europe to its advantage.
The shift in Russian influence in the Middle East is a stark one. Four years after Moscow launched its military operation in Syria, Moscow is taking over Washington s leading role in the region. In just a few days, President Putin spoke with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and invited him to visit Moscow, and also spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where they discussed security issues, as well as visits to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. All of this points to the growing role of Russia in the Middle East and the popular Moscow daily, Moskovsky Komsomolets, describes the changes as unperfected and assures that no regional power can ignore the Russian role today.
