| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
In February 2007, then Russian
President Vladimir Putin visited Saudi
Arabia, the very fi rst visit by a top
Russian leader to the kingdom. The
Russian press expressed confi dence that
Saudi-Russian cooperation was about to
increase dramatically. However, similar
Russian hopes for Putin's visits to other
countries in the Middle East and elsewhere
in the developing world have remained
largely unfulfi lled. Saudi-Russian cooperation,
though, actually did increase after
Putin's 2007 trip to Riyadh. With Riyadh
signaling strong support for Russian policy
in Chechnya, giving its assent to Russian
accession to the World Trade Organization
(WTO) and signing a military-technical
cooperation agreement with Moscow in
July 2008, the Kremlin has reason to be
pleased. Moscow is disappointed, however,
that there have not been more Saudi
contracts with Russian businesses. Tension
between Moscow and Riyadh over Russia's
relations with Iran is also apparent, in part
due to the dramatic fall in the price of oil
since mid-2008. More fundamentally, Saudi
and Russian leaders appear to have different
expectations of improved Moscow-Riyadh
ties. This could well serve to limit their
willingness to cooperate.
|