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President Vladimir Putin landed in Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, after earlier holding talks with the United Arab Emirates ruler in Abu Dhabi.
The two-capital visit on Wednesday is the first by the Russian leader to the Gulf region since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago. The whistle-stop tour is seen as an attempt by Moscow to show it can maintain close ties with the Gulf despite western attempts to force the region to comply with restrictions and sanctions against Russia.
Saudi state media published images of a grinning Putin being welcomed at the airport by the governor of Riyadh.
Earlier, after meeting the UAE’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Putin thanked him for the “UAE’s stance”, saying this had allowed relations between the two countries to reach “an unprecedentedly high level”.
The Russian president enjoys close relations with both the oil-exporting Gulf states, which have remained neutral over Ukraine since the full invasion of February last year. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have not ratified the statute that governs the International Criminal Court, which has indicted the Russian president for alleged war crimes.
The Russian leader is also keen to show that his country has not been isolated from the world because of the war, ahead of upcoming presidential elections in 2024.
Putin has limited his travels since the Ukraine invasion to countries of the former Soviet Union and to China and Iran. Russian news agencies on Wednesday published a video of him getting off his plane and shaking hands with the UAE delegation. A group of jets flew over the UAE’s presidential palace, painting the sky in the colours of the Russian flag.
Putin and the UAE ruler were said to have used the visit to discuss a range of issues, from energy and trade co-operation to the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“Of course, we will talk . . . about the situation in the trouble spots, first and foremost the Arab-Israeli conflict. I will definitely inform you about the situation with the Ukraine crisis,” Putin told Sheikh Mohammed, according to the video.
The same topics would also be on the agenda of negotiations between Putin and the Saudi crown prince, Russian state news agencies reported.
Putin has brought a delegation of high-ranking Russian officials with him, including central bank chief Elvira Nabiullina, his top energy official Alexander Novak, and Denis Manturov, Russia’s trade minister who has a mandate to restore supply chains. Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Chechnya, is another member of the Russian contingent. Representatives of the most important Russian energy companies are also travelling and will take part in the talks, according to state news agencies.
The UAE has become the main international hub for Russian businesses and a significant route for circumventing western sanctions. According to Putin, the turnover of goods between Russia and the UAE rose 68 per cent in 2022. “I believe this year [the growth] will be even greater,” he added.
Crown Prince Mohammed and Sheikh Mohammed have developed personal relationships with Putin and touted themselves as interlocutors between Russia and the west. The two have been central to various mediation efforts relating to the Ukraine war, including prisoner swaps.
Saudi Arabia’s economic partnership with Russia has been most strongly felt in the oil market. Prince Mohammed played a crucial role in helping bring Moscow into a broader Opec+ grouping, which last week expanded and deepened output cuts.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
