Russia and the Greater Middle East Plan: Pragmatist Peripheral Actor

Since the late 1990s, the Middle East region has attracted serious attention by Russia once again. Although Russians maintain their close ties with the West particularly the United States, they havetried to play an active independent part in the region. Since Russia has not managed to act as an influential player in the Middle East yet due to its various problems as well as the existing conditions of the international system, it has largely emerged as a peripheral pragmatist actor. This type of acting means that Moscow looks pragmatically at its foreign policy issues towards the region and acts to secure its interests according to such a vision. That is the reason why Russia did not oppose substantially to the plan of the Greater Middle East, but it fails to cooperate with it effectively.