Russia Under the Pyramids. The Significance of Russia-Egypt Relations Under Vladimir Putin

Abstract

The subject of our interest is to analyze the significance of Russia-Egypt relations undervVladimir Putin. The main purpose of our studies is to present the most important conditions and dependencies that characterize political, economic and military relations between the two countries.
In the beginning, we would like to discuss the history of relations between the abovementioned states, dating back to the times of the USSR. The key issue is the description of diplomatic relations between the two countries under the rule of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt and Anwar Sadat, after which for many years there had been a freeze in mutual relations up to the turn of the 21st century. In the next part of the discussion we present the most important goals and assumptions of political relations between Moscow and Cairo, implemented from the beginning of Putin’s rule in 2000 and by subsequent ruling elites in Egypt. We are mainly talking about Egypt gradually turning away from the United States, Russia’s slow return to the Middle East, the conflicts in Libya, Syria and tensions between the rulers of Egypt and Qatar, which harbors followers of the Muslim Brotherhood persecuted by Cairo. In addition, we examine the importance of economic issues in bilateral relations, focusing on the growing cooperation in the field of energy. We also describe the significance of military aspect and the related maritime doctrine of the Russian Federation, in which Egypt was mentioned as one of the most important partners of Russia in the Middle East.

In the summary, we present possible forecasts for the future in mutual relations, at the same time trying to answer the question of how real is the significant weakening of the Egyptian-American relations and Egypt’s turn to Russia in the future.