In 2005, Russia became a permanent observer at the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), two years after President Vladimir Putin had declared at the Islamic Summit in Malaysia that Russia was a “Muslim power”, that wanted to play a role as such among Muslim countries.
The same year that Russia gained its seat at the OIC, the largest international organization after the UN, Putin pronounced a striking speech in Chechnya in which he qualified his country as “the best and most reliable partner and ally [and] one of the main pillars of the Islamic world in the struggle for rights in the international arena, the struggle for their legitimate rights,” as reported by Seigei Blagov in the December 13th 2005 CNSNews.com article “Putin Calls Russia Islamic World's Most Reliable Ally.”
Since the last few years, Russian foreign policy towards the Muslim world has taken center stage at the Kremlin, somehow evoking Soviet policy before 1979. However, while Soviet foreign policy was rather perceived as supporting Third-worldism and national liberation struggles, Russia's new approach seems to target these counties' Islamic identity.
Converging Interests Between Russia and the Muslim World
This reversal in Russia's foreign relations is put into action at a moment where, on one side, we are assisting at a certain degree of reassertion of Russian power and a higher sens of confidence in its capacity to play a leading role in world affairs. At the same time, on the other side, the OIC is showing a desire to play a more concrete role in international relations, a desire supported by an asserting pan-Islamic civil society that consolidates itself around the objection to American power projection and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. This objection is fed by the perception in Muslim public opinion that Washington's “global war on terror” is in fact a war on Islam.
These trends become intimately linked when we look at Russia's significant Muslim population (between 10% and 15%) as well as the rise of a brand of anti-Americanism among Russians, that find its echo in the Muslim world. Hence, Russia and the Muslim world are united in their eagerness for a stronger voice in world affairs.
The Need to Counter Criticism About Chechnya
Therefore, Moscow has clearly identified Muslim countries as an ideal ground to position itself favorably in the 21st century world order and to increase its influence in the Middle East. The first step towards this goal is to counter criticism about Russia's war in Chechnya.
To banish the image of a war by Moscow against its own Muslims was a fundamental imperative for the Kremlin to prevent damaging its relations with Muslim countries. Cooperation between Russia and the Muslim world within the OIC was thus presented as a way to help settle the conflict.
Iran played a central role is pressing in favor of Moscow's stance at the OIC. However, the most important country to bring on Russia's side was Saudi Arabia because of its large influence inside the organization and its past support for Chechen separatists. For that reason, the denunciation of those separatists as acting in an un-Islamic way by Crown Prince Abdullah (who latter became King) on its visit to Moscow, was greeted very well by the Russian leadership.
Russia's improving relations with Saudi Arabia marked a turning point in its relations with the Muslim world for it basically took the Chechnya issue off the OIC's agenda and opened the way for Russia's admission into the organization.
Charming the Muslim World
Then came the real charm offensive. Russia attempted to present itself to the Muslim world as a more impartial, open and constructive partner than the United States. Moscow highlighted Washington's unilateral tendencies and tried to dissociate itself from US President Bush's “war on terror”, which Russia saw as counter-productive.
As a result, Russia's hardening of its foreign policy toward the United States from 2003-2004 took place at the same time as it's energized foreign policy toward the Muslim world. Therefore, this dual process must be seen as part of Russia's power struggle with Washington and its ambition to increase its influence in the Middle East and become again a great world power.
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