Will the war in Ukraine reshape Russia’s influence in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and Africa?
Faced with the scenario of a permanently adversarial Russia, a number of countries to Russia’s south - primarily in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and Africa - will be confronted with difficult choices in a vast array of domains—food security, trade, energy supplies, arms procurement, and military alliances. This could push them to choose between political alignment with Russia, which would imply autocracy, and good relations with the West, implying democracy. Ambassador Marc Pierini, the author of a recent piece titled “Moscow’s Southern Accent?”, joins our host Thanos Davelis to look at how the war in Ukraine will reshape the role that Russia will be able to play in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and Africa.
Marc Pierini is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, where his research focuses on developments in the Middle East and Turkey from a European perspective. Prior to this, Pierini was a career EU diplomat, and served as EU ambassador to Turkey.
Read Ambassador Pierini’s latest article here: Moscow’s Southern Accent?
You can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:
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