Russia is welcome in the Middle East—up to a point
Arabs encourage Russia's economic advances but are wary of political ones
When Rosneft's chief executive Igor Sechin announced in December 2016 that the Russian firm was taking a 30% share in Egypt's giant offshore Zohr gasfield, Eni had cause to celebrate. For it had further spread the risk associated with developing it, having earlier sold a 10% stake to BP. But Eni's satisfaction was very likely nothing compared to that expressed by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi when he hosted Sechin at his palace in Cairo. To have a Russian firm involved prominently in a prestige project like Zohr fits with Sisi's strategy of diluting his country's economic dependence on the US and other Western nations. It's a strategy that most Arab governments are adopting. Iraq has welcom
Also in this section
13 March 2026
Brussels is again weighing a cap on gas prices amid the Hormuz crisis, but the measure could backfire by deterring the LNG cargoes Europe urgently needs
12 March 2026
Emergency oil stocks provide a last line of defence to oil market shocks, so the IEA’s unprecedented 400m bl release represents something of a double-edged sword
12 March 2026
LPG could rapidly expand access to clean cooking across Africa and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from indoor air pollution each year, but infrastructure shortages and regulatory barriers are slowing investment and market growth
11 March 2026
Missiles over Dubai and disruption in Hormuz are testing the emirate’s reputation—and shaking the energy hub at the centre of the Gulf economy
