Putin Has Made Russia Part of the Middle East - Bloomberg

Putin Has Made Russia Part of the Middle East - Bloomberg



...All these cases have one thing in common, though: In each, Putin backed the status quo. Like the Russian czars of old, who saw it as their goal to support monarchies everywhere, he is a consistent opponent of regime change and backer of incumbents. 



...Such a record endears Middle Eastern leaders to Putin: They can be reasonably certain he won’t pull a fast one on them. With the U.S. they can’t be so sure, since Washington has backed or directly performed several regime changes in the region.



...Middle East ... most of them, like Putin, are in charge of commodity-based economies.



...Putin’s Russia is not really a European, a Central Asian or an East Asian country, ... Its pivot to the Middle East is more natural than previous attempts to cozy up to the U.S. or the current overtures to China. Whether it’s in Russian national interests is a question for Putin’s successors to ponder.