A M Vasilev - Russias Middle East Policy: From Lenin to Putin

First published 2018

by Routledge

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2018 Alexey Vasiliev

The right of Alexey Vasiliev to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Vasiliev, A. M. (Aleksei Mikhailovich), author.

Title: Russias Middle East policy: from Lenin to Putin/Alexey Vasiliev.

Other titles: Durham modern Middle East and Islamic world series; 46.

Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge,

2018. | Series: Durham modern Middle East and Islamic world series;

46 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017051812 | ISBN 9781138563605 (hbk) | ISBN

9781315121826 (ebk) | ISBN 9781351348850 (mobipocket)

Subjects: LCSH: Soviet UnionForeign relationsMiddle East. | Middle

EastForeign relationsSoviet Union. | Russia (Federation)

Foreign relationsMiddle East. | Middle EastForeign relations

Russia (Federation)

Classification: LCC DS63.2.S65 V368 2018 | DDC 327.47056dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017051812

ISBN: 978-1-138-56360-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-12182-6 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

The year is 1969. We are in Arabia, in Dhufar, a south-western province of the Sultanate of Oman. This is the farthest point of the Arab world, the end of Eurasia, thousands of kilometres away from Moscow. We are in a hut, covered with palm branches. Cow hides are spread on the ground and sacks of grain hang from the cross beams as a precaution against rats. A woman, her face unveiled and with a large ring in her nose, brings us supper of boiled rice, dried fish and tea. Armed mountain-dwellers are jammed into the hut. It is difficult to breathe. These people have come here to look at us, two Russians, Soviet men. We are guests of the Peoples Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Zone of the Arabian Gulf, and we represent the Soviet Committee for Solidarity with the Countries of Asia and Africa. One of us is a journalist from Pravda , the other is a military intelligence officer. Our job is to see and understand what kind of organization this Peoples Front is, whether it is genuine or merely a fiction, and then to recommend to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) what to do.

But now attention is no longer focused on us but is directed towards an Omani of African origin, a slaves son from Salalah. He speaks freely and passionately, lines of poetry following political slogans. His words appeal both to reason and to the heart. I listen attentively

We are bogged down in the swamp of ignorance with our faces buried in the mire, in our fields and our shops we tremble with fear, as we try to save our skins. The sultans and the sheikhs are selling us to the imperialists. They live in palaces with air-conditioning these are machines that give cold air even when it is hot. The audience click their tongues in admiration. And what falls to our lot, he continues,

is mud, work performed by the sweat of our brow, and humiliation. But we are not slaves, and we have risen in rebellion. Our future is bright, the future when nobody will live at the expense of others and power will belong to the people. Our children will go to school. Doctors will come to our huts. Our oil will help the people to prosper. We shall follow along the road pointed out to us by the October revolution in Russia, discovered by the great Lenin.