Abstract
From the mid-1950s, when the Soviet Union entered the Middle East as a regional actor through the agency of the 1955 Czechoslovak arms deal with Egypt, until Gorbachev’s accession to power in 1985, the Soviet leadership regarded the Middle East as a major arena of ideological and strategic competition with the United States. Moscow considered events in the Middle East to be directly relevant to Soviet security interests, arguing that the region bordered directly on the southern frontiers of the USSR.
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Notes and References
See Robert O. Freedman, ‘Moscow and the Gulf War’, Problems of Communism 40, 4, July—August 1991, pp. 1–17.
For an overview of Soviet—Turkish relations, see Alvin Z. Rubinstein, Soviet Policy Toward Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan: The Dynamics of Influence (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1982) pp. 1–55. On aid figures, see US Department of State, Soviet and East European Aid, 1981, pp. 17–19.
John B. Dunlop, The Faces of Contemporary Russian Nationalism (Princeton University Press, 1983) pp. 242–73.
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© 1993 Royal United Services Institute
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Smith, M. (1993). Russia’s New Priorities and the Middle East. In: Hollis, R. (eds) The Soviets, Their Successors and the Middle East. RUSI Defence Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22968-0_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22968-0_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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