Putin Complicates Middle East Politics
Posted on April 27, 2005
Not about to be outdone by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Russian President Vladimir Putin headed off to the Middle East this week. After chatting with Hosni Mubarak in Egypt yesterday, Putin landed in Israel for a round of talks with Israeli leaders about selling Russian missiles to Syria. But the most important reason for Putin to travel to the area is to upstage the U.S. in the stalled Mideast peace process. In Cairo, Putin called for a Middle East peace conference to be held in Moscow. He talked about how all the countries involved in the process should be at the conference. Although Russia is technically a sponsor of the "Road Map to Peace" it really hasn't done much; this is America's ballgame and everyone knows it. Or it used to be. Officially, Israel supports a conference. But private statements from Israeli government officials to the press indicate irritation with the Russians' attempt to horn in on the process. The Palestinians embrace the idea of an international conference and want to know why they have to wait until the fall to do it. The White House hasn't commented yet. Putin going to the Middle East is unusual, to say the least.
Putin's stop in Cairo was the first state visit to Egypt by a Russian or Soviet leader since Nikita Khrushchev came in 1964 to inaugurate construction of the Aswan High Dam, which the Soviet Union helped finance.Can President Putin make his mark in the Mideast? He appears to want to be known as a peacemaker. Which would certainly be a first for him. I still think this is all about putting us in our place over Iraq and our grumping to Putin about his helping Iran make nuclear power plants (and God knows what else.) My guess is that our State Department is now debating how to counter Putin's moves without being openly antagonistic.Egypt's close ties with Moscow began waning after Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser died in 1970. Nasser's successor, Anwar Sadat, set the regional powerhouse on a pro-American track that accelerated under Mubarak. Putin's trip to Israel is the first by a Kremlin leader to the Jewish state and is part of his effort to burnish an image as a world leader amid accusations of backsliding on democracy at home.
It comes as increasingly close ties between the two countries are threatened by Russia's determination to push ahead with a missile sale to Syria that Israel considers threatening. Other potential sore points are Moscow's nuclear aid to Iran, signs of rising anti-Semitism in Russia and the Kremlin's push to extradite several former Russian billionaires who have taken residence in Israel.