A Szovjetunió és Oroszország a Közel-Keleten
The Soviet Union and Russia in the Middle East

Summary/Abstract: Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Moscow’s attention rapidly retreated from the Middle East, partly on account of a major drop in resources, and partly because of a devaluation of the region in political terms. Of the earlier client countries, Egypt had already distanced itself from the Soviet Union in the 1970s. As a consequence of Saddam Hussein’s confrontational politics Iraq, became such an uncomfortable partner that Gorbachev did not pose any obstacle at all to the forceful bridling of Iraq after it overran Kuwait in the summer of 1990. Thereon Syria remained – in addition to Iran – the only country in the region that continued to benefit from Moscow’s attention and support after the end of the Soviet Union. A number of circumstances contributed to this position: significant debts Damascus had stacked up towards Moscow; the use of Soviet arms across the Syrian army; the regional weight and importance of the country; as well as the fact that the only military base Russia finally kept outside of the CIS area was the Tartus naval base in Syria. After sketching an overview of the Soviet Union’s Middle East politics with special attention to its relations with Egypt, Iraq, and Syria, this study sets out to provide a detailed introduction to the role Putin’s Russia has assumed in the Syrian crisis since 2011.

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