Russia Courts Muslim World -Jacques Levesque
Vladimir Putin was the first head of a non-Muslim majority state to speak at the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Russia won observer member status thanks to support from Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Since then, Putin and other Russian leaders claim that Russia "is a part of the Muslim world." Before 9/11, Putin called Chechen rebels "Muslim fundamentalist terrorists"; now he avoids any reference to Islam.
Since Russia's foreign policy aim is to "reinforce multipolarity in the world" and develop poles of resistance to [the] U.S., this means taking advantage of the hostility to U.S. in the Arab and Muslim world.
(Le Monde Diplomatique-France)
3 comments:
The U.S.'s foreign policy the last 8 years helped to foster the perceived need for this strategy.
Perhaps the larger factor is Russia's quest to reinvent itself as a world superpower and a bring back the Tzar.
Putin is dangerous, as he's shown in his recent invasion...managing Russia is no easy task...for anyone.
Putin is dangerous. Nevertheless, we kept him in check for years. It is our loss of international credibility over the last eight years coupled with the mess are mired in Iraq that has empowered him, much like Iran. Had we just gone in to Afghanistan and finished the excellent job we had started, Russia would view us differently, as they did at the beginning of all this, because we seemed to have achieved what they could not do in Afghanistan for years.
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