... foundation of the independent Turkish Republic headed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. In 1926, the USSR was the rst country to recognize the independence of Saudi Arabia under its founder Abdulaziz Al Saud, supplying the country – one of the poorest in the Arab world at the time – with staple commodities, including fuel. Soviet Russia was also among the rst nations to recognize Israel. These and other examples invariably turned out to be failu res for the USSR’s foreign policy. And there were various reasons for this, including the opposition of the pro-American camp, in ghting ...
... to the U.S., which illustrates the attractiveness of American culture and values.
Russia’s soft power can be understood as being focused on providing alternative informational work, as opposed to presenting an attractive image of Russia.
However,
Russia, which has historically paid less attention to soft power
, now experiences growing discontent from the Arab world, partly due to its military involvement in the Syrian conflict. Indeed, supporting Bashar al-Assad and having strategic partnership with Iran, has tarnished Russia’s image in the eyes of the Sunni majority nations in the region. Not to mention,...
... specialized Russian institutions, as well as Russian Ambassador to Qatar Nurmahmad Kholov and representatives of other CIS embassies.
RIAC Director General Andrey Kortunov attended the conference where he delivered a lecture “
Is there a Role for Russia in the Arab World?
” and also held talks with Dr. Azmi Bishara, Director General of Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies on opportunities for cooperation of their think tanks.
During his stay in Doha, Dr. Kortunov also visited Qatari MFA to meet Foreign ...
