Russia weighs in on Yemen
After Russia's shift to soft power in the Middle East, President Vladimir Putin discusses Russia's "need to abandon ‘the law of the strongest’ and ‘rule of the fist.’”
Russia is investing enormous resources in soft power and specifically in what Americans call public diplomacy in the Middle East and worldwide. But is it working? The results in Yemen, and earlier in Syria, suggest otherwise.
Senior Russian officials from President Vladimir Putin downward regularly call for peaceful resolution in the Middle East and condemn violence. Indeed, Russia’s Foreign Ministry did so again just four days before the mid-May cease-fire in Yemen. Earlier, Russia’s capable ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, criticized the United States and Western governments for failing to support a UN Security Council resolution calling for the “humanitarian pause.” Churkin later warned that sending foreign ground troops into Yemen “may lead to a very serious humanitarian disaster.”
Beyond words, Moscow has acted essentially altruistically in certain narrow circumstances, as in the Russian navy’s April evacuation of over 300 civilians from Yemen. According to press reports, only 45 evacuees were Russian — most were Yemenis. Interestingly, some 18 were Americans, leading US Secretary of State John Kerry to thank Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a telephone conversation, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry statement. (When questioned, US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf appeared surprised by this, but thanked Moscow herself.)
Yet, few in the region or elsewhere argue that Russia’s public exhortations contributed to the cease-fire or, for that matter, give Russia credit for seeking it. On the contrary, most view Russia’s diplomacy as self-serving.
