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Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
Author : O. Ozerov
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia
THE FACT that since September 28, 2015, when President Putin
delivered his historic speech at the UN General Assembly in New
York, the situation in the Middle East has radically changed is self-
evident and requires no additional arguments. This was accomplished
by Russia that not merely called on the world to set up a united an-
titerrorist front but confirmed by its actions that it was prepared to
fight "the cancer," i.e., ISIS, consistently and efficiently.
We have to admit, however, that the movement toward a united an-
titerrorist front turned out to be much slower than we would have
wished and much more erratic that we could have expected. Com-
mon interests might finally persuade the main world and regional
centers to form a common front. Let's assess the barriers on this road.
Anybody from the region looking at the United States can see that its strategy of ensuring global
domination and distancing from the Middle East is the highest barrier on this road.
Throughout the 2000s, Washington was actively promoting it as allegedly supported by the world
community to justify its military adventures by the noble slogan of protecting common people
against the "bloody dictators" and as an alternative to the international norms registered in the
UN Charter. Today, Obama, according to his interviewer Jeffrey Goldberg, said, with a great de-
gree of irritation, to Samantha Power, U.S. representative at the UN and the theoretician of this
neoliberal doctrine: "Samantha, enough, I've already read your book."
A sober analysis shows that Europe has found itself in a quandary. The recent events, the terrorist
acts in Paris on November 13, 2013 and in Brussels last March, revealed its, so far carefully con-
cealed, weaknesses. First, it blindly followed the United States as an active participant in the Arab
Spring that destroyed the statehoods in Libya and Syria. The results of this were exactly like Rus-
sia predicted.
Europe is gradually moving toward a sober assessment of what is going on and why; there are
clear signs of this. However, a lot of time has been lost and today there are no reasons to expect
that Europe is ready to join forces with Russia.
Russia's Middle Eastern concept should contain a carefully worded idea of a new image of the
region that its peoples will find attractive, not the ideas of Armageddon.
Russia and the Future of the Middle East