Political Dimensions of Military Technical Cooperation Between Russia and Saudi Arabia
The role of Russia in the Middle East region has been increasing since the start of operation in Syria. This forces not only Russia, but also the Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia to adjust their politics according to the current situation. Both Russia and Saudi Arabia actively use military technical cooperation to develop relations with other countries, so it is essential that in their interstate relations this instrument should be applied. In this article, the military technical cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia is under consideration. The article aims to determine the dependence of military technical cooperation between the countries on politics. There is a lack of literature on the issue; the main part of it covers military technical cooperation between Russia and the Middle East countries and also the interstate relations with them in general. Due to the specific character of the arms trade sphere, the volume of sources is also insufficient. However, it is possible to carry out an analysis that allows forming the general image of the military technical cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia and its reason on the basis of related mass media publications and SIPRI data. The analysis of the Russia-Saudi Arabia military technical cooperation development shows that its expansion is in correlation with the growing role of Russia in the Middle East. In the middle of the 2010s, a number of contracts were concluded and performed. The following reasons of this expansion can be mentioned: problems in interstate relations between Saudi Arabia and the Western countries caused by the conflict in Yemen and Jamal Khashoggi's killing, the Arms Trade Treaty limitations for trade with Saudi Arabia for Western countries, Saudi Arabia's diversification of arms suppliers, search of Russia for new arms markets, etc. Nevertheless, these reasons cannot be assumed as reasons of crucial importance: the Western countries maintain their positions on the Saudi Arabia arms market despite all the limitations and issues in interstate relations, Saudi Arabia is not the key arms market for Russia; moreover, the integration of Russian arms systems into Saudi Arabia's armed forces formed by the Western military standard is quite complicated. Taking into account all the limitations related to the military technical cooperation between the countries, it can be stated that neither Russia nor Saudi Arabia has crucial economical or technical reasons for its start. Therefore, the following conclusion can be made: military technical cooperation between these countries is not a single process; it is caused by a whole direction of interstate relations, and it is only an instrument to boost them.