Russian president Vladimir Putin is set to visit Saudi and the Gulf, a chance to deepen cooperation on energy and oil, drum up investment and promote Russia’s Pantsir group of anti-UAV weaponry.shut down half of Saudi Arabia’s oil output, the country that has arguably moved most deftly to position itself for any upside is Russia.
At a news conference in Ankara on 16 September where Putin attended a summit with the presidents of Turkey and, his self-assurance was on full display, all but trolling the US, which sells the Patriot missile-defence system to Saudi, in saying that Riyadh should buy from Moscow instead. That leaves open the question of whether the US is ready to use its military might to defend Riyadh, its closest Arab ally, a gap in commitment that may play to Russia’s hand.
Schake and others emphasise that this is far from Putin attempting to replace the US as the overall security guarantor in the Gulf, a role the US has played since the 1950s. It’s also the case that Putin is not without problems at home, where he is under pressure to raise living standards, diversify the economy away from oil and improve growth.
That view was reinforced by the EU ambassador to Moscow, who wrote in a cable that EU leaders needed to be “pragmatic” in engaging with Russia, according to the Financial Times.
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