<div dir="ltr"><h2 class="gmail-title">Arab ambassadors for Russian interests</h2><div class="gmail-field gmail-field-name-body-summary gmail-field-type-ds gmail-field-label-hidden"><div class="gmail-field-items"><div class="gmail-field-item even">The
Kremlin is seeking to spread its influence abroad through its foreign
cultural work. The plan is working brilliantly in the Middle East, says
Joseph Croitoru</div></div></div><div class="gmail-block gmail-block-shariff gmail-block-shariff-block gmail-block-shariff-shariff-block--2 gmail-odd gmail-block-without-title" id="gmail-block-shariff-shariff-block--2"><div class="gmail-block-inner gmail-clearfix"><div class="gmail-content gmail-clearfix"><div class="gmail-shariff"><ul class="gmail-theme-colored gmail-orientation-horizontal gmail-col-8"><li class="gmail-shariff-button gmail-facebook"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fen.qantara.de%2Fcontent%2Fmoscows-cultural-policy-in-the-middle-east-arab-ambassadors-for-russian-interests" title="Share on Facebook"><span class="gmail-fa gmail-fa-facebook"></span><span class="gmail-share_text"></span><span class="gmail-share_count"></span></a><br></li><li class="gmail-shariff-button gmail-googleplus"><a href="https://plus.google.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.qantara.de%2Fcontent%2Fmoscows-cultural-policy-in-the-middle-east-arab-ambassadors-for-russian-interests" title="Share on Google+"><span class="gmail-fa gmail-fa-google-plus"></span><span class="gmail-share_text"></span><span class="gmail-share_count"></span></a><br></li></ul></div> </div>
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</div><div class="gmail-content-body gmail-clearfix"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">The
concept of the "Great Geopolitical Game" is integral to today's
government discourse in Russia. The phrase refers to the foreign policy
aim pursued by President Vladimir Putin to once again position his
country as a global superpower. This "game" also includes the Kremlin's
realignment of its foreign cultural policy, manifested in 2008 by the
restructuring of the competent authority.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">At
that time, the Russian Centre for International Cooperation in Research
and Culture (Rossarubeschzentr) was turned into the Federal Agency for
the CIS, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian
Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) and placed under the jurisdiction of
the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">This government
agency is pursuing a massive expansion course as Moscow apparently
tries to hark back to the days when the Soviet Union wielded global
influence as leader of the socialist world revolution. Soviet experience
and old contacts are therefore being re-activated, albeit using modern
methods and contemporary rhetoric.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">Tellingly,
the head of Rossotrudnichestvo since 2015, Lyubov Glebova, began her
political career in the Komsomol, or Young Communist League. In the
Soviet era, this political training organisation also played an
important role in international educational work.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">Russia's cultural offensive in the Middle East</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">The
Russian cultural offensive is particularly evident in the Middle East,
where Moscow is asserting greater military power. Many Russian cultural
centres have been opened since 2009 in Arab countries where none
previously existed. Examples include Jordan, the Palestinian territories
(West Bank), and most recently the United Arab Emirates in 2012. There
have been Russian cultural centres in Egypt and Syria since the 1960s. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">The
realignment of Moscow's cultural policy has led to an increase in both
the number of staff deployed to the Middle East and their
professionalism. In addition, Moscow's foreign cultural work has been
receiving media support, in particular from the TV channel Russia Today
and the news portal Sputnik, most comprehensively in the respective
Arab-language versions.</span></p>
<div class="gmail-media gmail-media-element-container gmail-media-large gmail-image-left" style="width:100%"><img class="gmail-media-element gmail-file-large" src="http://en.qantara.de/sites/default/files/styles/editor_large/public/uploads/2018/01/08/the_rossotrudnichestvo_logo.jpg?itok=XL5EAt5S" alt="The Rossotrudnichestvo logo" title="The Rossotrudnichestvo logo" width="730" height="411"><br>
<div class="gmail-field gmail-field-name-field-file-image-caption-text gmail-field-type-text gmail-field-label-hidden">
<div class="gmail-field-items">
<div class="gmail-field-item even">Rossotrudnichestvo, the cultural policy
mouthpiece of the Kremlin: "This government agency is pursuing a massive
expansion course as Moscow apparently tries to hark back to the days
when the Soviet Union wielded global influence as leader of the
socialist world revolution. Soviet experience and old contacts are
therefore being re-activated, albeit using modern methods and
contemporary rhetoric," writes Joseph Croitoru</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">The
fact that these Kremlin mouthpieces have close links to the
Rossotrudnichestvo agency is demonstrated by the number of former agency
employees who now hold key positions in Russian cultural institutions
in the Arab world, especially in those cases where these employees speak
Arabic. The director of the Cairo centre, Alexei Tevanyan, for
instance, was an editor at Russia Today in 2009 and 2010.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">Besides
educating the public about Russian culture in all its many facets –
where possible, with a certain political slant – Moscow culture
officials stationed in Arab countries are trying to forge ties with
schools and institutions of higher education. Russian has thus been
introduced as a subject at several Arab universities in recent years.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">In
Syria – a major focus of Russian foreign policy in the region – a
Russian language and culture course was launched at the University of
Damascus in 2014. Only recently, in October 2017, a Centre for the
Russian Language was established there as well. The tasks of this new
centre include training Syrians to become Russian teachers. They are
needed in the growing number of Syrian schools where Russian is being
taught as an elective since 2014.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">Construing long-standing cultural ties</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">The
Rossotrudnichestvo actively promotes study in Russia for foreign
students and is awarding more and more scholarships to Arab students.
Young Arabs' interest in Russian culture is rising accordingly. One of
the reasons why Moscow is currently so active in fostering this interest
is because many of the Russian-speaking Arabs who studied in Russia in
Soviet times and later went on to hold influential posts back home have
retired by now – although they still remain an important pillar and are
often mobilised as "ambassadors" of Russian culture and state interests
in the Arab world. They pass on their knowledge and contacts to the
younger generation not only in the context of the relevant alumni
associations but also in books that cast Russian–Arab relations in a
sympathetic light.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">In
these books and in exhibitions too – most of which gloss over the
Communist era – the attempt is made to construe long-standing cultural
ties between Russians and Arabs that go back several centuries. In the
case of Palestine, there is even talk of Russia's age-old connections
with the Holy Land that stretch back thousands of years. </span></p>
<div class="gmail-media gmail-media-element-container gmail-media-large gmail-image-left" style="width:100%"><img class="gmail-media-element gmail-file-large" src="http://en.qantara.de/sites/default/files/styles/editor_large/public/uploads/2018/01/08/2_abbas_erdogan_putin_opening_of_juma_mosque_moscow_reuters.jpg?itok=ybh6B-3z" alt="Mahmoud Abbas, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin at the opening of the Moscow Jum'ah (Cathedral) Mosque in 2015 (photo: Reuters)" title="Mahmoud Abbas, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin at the opening of the Moscow Jum'ah (Cathedral) Mosque in 2015 (photo: Reuters)" width="730" height="411"><br>
<div class="gmail-field gmail-field-name-field-file-image-caption-text gmail-field-type-text gmail-field-label-hidden">
<div class="gmail-field-items">
<div class="gmail-field-item even">"The Palestinian Authority is easy terrain
for Moscow's cultural officials, because they have a particularly
prominent friend there: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was
already part of the PLO leadership back when it was supported by the
Soviet Union," writes Joseph Croitoru. Pictured here: Mahmoud Abbas,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin at the opening of the Moscow
Jum'ah (Cathedral) Mosque in 2015</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">The
Palestinian Authority is easy terrain for Moscow's cultural
officials because they have a particularly prominent friend there:
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was already part of the PLO
leadership back when it was supported by the Soviet Union. Abbas studied
history in Moscow and wrote a dissertation there in the 1980s in the
spirit of the Soviet government-mandated anti-fascism, discussing
"secret relations" between the Nazis and the Zionists.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">President
Putin paid a visit to Abbas in Ramallah in 2005, and in 2010, Russia
acquired a large plot of land in Jericho from the old holdings of the
Russian Orthodox Church and built on it a Russian history museum with
lavish gardens. It is located on a street named after the then Russian
President Dmitri Medvedev. Medvedev visited Jericho in 2011 to
officially open the museum.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">During
Putin's visit to the Palestinian territories in 2012, it was said that
the aim of the museum was also to strengthen the Russian presence in the
Holy Land. Each of the two sections of the exhibition there suggests in
its own way that this relationship goes back a very long time, </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">On
display, for example, are historical photos from the 19th and early
20th centuries of Russian pilgrims to Jerusalem who had their pictures
taken at the Temple Mount. Also presented are archaeological finds from
the museum grounds that can be traced back to a Byzantine church that
once stood there. In line with the Neo-Byzantinism propagated by the
Russian government, these exhibits conjure up relations reaching back
thousands of years between the Russians – the historical heirs to the
Byzantine Empire – and the Holy Land. The museum has long been a
mandatory stop for Russian "Bible travellers".</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">Promoting the study of Russian in the Middle East</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">As
in Damascus, a centre for Russian language and culture was opened in
Jericho in October, at Al Istiqlal University. The idea for this centre
came from the chairman of the university's board of trustees, Tawfiq al
Tirawi.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">A
Fatah official and general, Tirawi was Yassir Arafat's right-hand man
and the first head of intelligence for the Palestinian Authority.
Although he did not himself study in Soviet Russia, as a member of the
Fatah elite, he must certainly have had contacts to the country. Tirawi
wants to make Russian Studies a major academic focus at the university
in Jericho. The plan is that members of the PA security forces will also
be educated there.</span></p>
<div class="gmail-media gmail-media-element-container gmail-media-large gmail-image-left" style="width:100%"><img class="gmail-media-element gmail-file-large" src="http://en.qantara.de/sites/default/files/styles/editor_large/public/uploads/2018/01/08/3_assad_und_putin_reuters.jpg?itok=5SiQRdJ1" alt="Presidents Assad and Putin meet in Sochi in November 2017 (photo: Reuters/Sputnik/M. Klimentyev)" title="Presidents Assad and Putin meet in Sochi in November 2017 (photo: Reuters/Sputnik/M. Klimentyev)" width="730" height="411"><br>
<div class="gmail-field gmail-field-name-field-file-image-caption-text gmail-field-type-text gmail-field-label-hidden">
<div class="gmail-field-items">
<div class="gmail-field-item even">Long-standing ties: There have been Russian
cultural centres in Egypt and Syria since the 1960s. Syria is a major
focus of Russian foreign policy in the region: a Russian language and
culture course was launched at the University of Damascus in 2014 and a
Centre for the Russian Language, which among other things trains Syrians
to become Russian teachers, was opened in 2017</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">Closer
co-operation between Fatah cadres and the Russian security authorities
can therefore be expected, further reinforcing the already lively
bilateral cultural exchange. In addition to Jericho, Bethlehem also has a
Russian cultural centre, which Putin inaugurated during his visit in
2012.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">In
May 2017, Bethlehem acquired yet another Russian institution, the Putin
Foundation for Culture and Economics, the headquarters of which
were officially opened by the Russian President and his Palestinian
counterpart via video transmission when they met in Sochi. The building
in Bethlehem is located on Putin Street, thus named in 2012.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">That
same year, Russian was launched as a subject at An-Najah National
University in Nablus, located on terrain governed by the Palestinian
Authority. The initiator was the historian of ideas Amr Mahamid, who
studied in Leningrad and today lives in Israel. </span><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">In
addition to lecturing at the university in Nablus, Mahamid has also
been active for many years as an unofficial cultural ambassador for
Russia in his Palestinian hometown of Umm al Fahm (today located in
Israel), where he runs a small Russian cultural centre. Mahamid, whose
father was a founding member of the Israeli-Arab Communist Party in his
hometown, has published several books on Russian–Palestinian cultural
relations. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">One
of them is about the history of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society
founded in 1882, which under its present leader, Sergei Stepashin, a
former Russian Prime Minister, has for some time been portraying itself
as a symbol of longstanding Russian–Arab friendship. In April, Stepashin
visited Damascus and announced the opening of a local branch of the
society and a Russian school there. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">Generally
speaking, Russian–Syrian cultural relations are well and truly alive in
the Syrian capital at the moment. The two sides are celebrating being
comrades-in-arms once again and hailing their joint victory over
"terrorism" – for example in photography exhibitions such as "Syria Will
Triumph", which was shown at several venues in Russia and was recently
on view in Damascus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">Joseph Croitoru</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">© Qantara.de 2017</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:medium;color:black" lang="EN-GB">Translated from the German by Jennifer Taylor</span></em></p>
</div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
</div>