One of the most poignant and important things about the ongoing Russian occupation in Syria is that President Assad invited Putin to send in troops and arms to fight Islamic terror groups, while the U.S. led ISIS and militant rebels are little more than rogue offenders seeking to illegally bring down a sovereign government. And despite all the rhetoric being used against Russia by the Western media, support within the Middle East is actually more on the side of Putin than it is on Washington.
And because of this growing support, nations outside of Syria, and even ones that were once strongly in the American camp, are suddenly changing course and are seeking new trade and financial agreements with the Eurasian power that could completely change the landscape of the Middle East.
Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak is in Iran to discuss energy cooperation. Among the proposals is setting up of a bank to boost joint projects.
“One of the most important issues that have a negative impact on the development of our trade relations [with Iran] is the financial issue. Today, we paid attention to this, and also discussed a number of proposals to ensure that our joint projects will be financed properly,” said Novak, adding the bank was among the proposals.
“Iran is an important and large trading partner, we are now at a new stage, a new level of development of our relations,” he added.
Novak’s two-day visit to Tehran will include talks with Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian and a number of other ministers and heads of departments. The final goal is to boost trade from $2 billion to $10 billion. - Russia Today
That Iran is forging ahead with talks of creating a new banking system with Russia is not completely a surprise, but perhaps what is more fascinating is the shift by Saudi Arabia away from the U.S. and towards Putin by a number of princes who stand against King Salman and the long standing royal family.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is to invest up to $10 billion in Russia over the next five years, in a move signalling a thawing in relations between the two countries.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the country’s sovereign wealth investment vehicle, agreed on Monday to invest $10 billion over the next five years approximately in the Russia Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a government-run investment fund.
Speaking to CNBC on Tuesday, RDIF’s Chief Executive Kirill Dmitriev said that he thought the investment would be “very important” for Russia.
“The first seven projects have received preliminary approval, and RDIF expects to close 10 deals before the end of the year,” Dmitriev said when announcing the deal which is the largest foreign direct investment in the country in the last four years.
“This deal is about building an important partnership. Russia needs to be an integrated global player. We are also going to invest in Saudi Arabia, which is a very attractive market for us so the deal is very interesting,” he told CNBC. - CNBC
Perhaps on a most interesting note regarding these new partnerships is that Russia has the capacity through trade to bring stability to a region that has morphed into chaos ever since the beginning of this century. And by working on equal terms with different shiite and sunni governments, Russia could not only strengthen ties with the Islamic world, but also help quash certain hatreds that have been at the middle of constant war that has involved Iran, Yemen, Iraq, and even Israel.
The U.S. has used both military and economic force to keep Middle Eastern nations within the sphere of dollar hegemony, and they were able to do this for two decades because there were no superpowers capable of standing up to them and intervening. But as both China and Russia increase their economic dominion over the Far East, Eurasia, and now the Middle East through the offer of trade pacts that do not affect a nation’s currency or sovereign rule, the crucible is being set for opportunities of change that could make the Middle East the hinging factor for the end of the dollar and U.S. domination.
Kenneth Schortgen Jr is a writer for Secretsofthefed.com, Examiner.com, Roguemoney.net, and To the Death Media, and hosts the popular web blog, The Daily Economist. Ken can also be heard Wednesday afternoons giving an weekly economic report on the Angel Clark radio show.
