King Salman's unprecedented state visit to Russia signifies a new search for help in the kingdom's foreign policy, which is burdened with a quagmire in Yemen and a losing hand against its regional rival Iran. Riyadh has a long and tortuous relationship with Moscow that the king wants to reshape. However, Salman, who arrived in Moscow on Wednesday night, is likely to get more sympathy than action.
The Soviet Union was one of the first states to recognize Saudi Arabia after the kingdom's founder, King Abdulaziz Al Saud, conquered the Hijaz from the pro-British Hashemites. In 1926, a Soviet embassy was opened in Jeddah. The communists saw the Saudis as an anti-imperialist movement, and the Saudis were looking for allies against the British. The king's son, Prince Faisal, visited Russia in 1932 and met with senior Soviet officials but not Josef Stalin. In 1938, Stalin withdrew the Soviet mission and executed all of its members in the midst of a massive purge in the Communist Party. Relations were not renewed until after the Cold War in 1990.
The Saudis were enthusiastic cold warriors, providing money to anti-Soviet insurgents from Nicaragua to Angola. The centerpiece was Afghanistan, where the Saudi intelligence service allied with the CIA and Pakistani spies to support the mujahedeen. Then-Prince Salman headed a committee to raise private funding for the Afghans. He raised hundreds of millions of dollars from the royal family and other wealthy Saudis to supplement the government money that flowed from Washington and Riyadh via Islamabad to the guerrillas.
Since the Cold War, the Saudis have tried several times to establish a strong relationship with Russia. There have been efforts at establishing an arms-sales relationship and a program to share nuclear technology. Despite repeated attempts, not much has been implemented. Much-promised initiatives have failed to deliver. The most enduring agreement has been to jointly limit oil exports, but this has failed to raise prices, so both economies are hurting. Neither has much capital to invest.
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