Russia Building Ties With New Allies Amid Sanctions

The "comedy of sanctions" is following the familiar scenario. Everyone is pretending they believe in sanctions but understands that sanctions are torn apart from reality, an article in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica read.

A month ago, the French Senate passed a non-binding resolution calling to gradually ease sanctions against Russia. However, France supported the extension of sanctions until January 2017.

At the same time, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi visited an international economic forum in St. Petersburg in June. President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker also participated in the forum. The event proved that despite sanctions Western companies are interested in running business in Russia.

According to the article, the Kremlin does not seem to be very concerned about sanctions. Moreover, Russia is not waiting for a "call from Brussels" to talk about sanctions.

Instead, Moscow is building a network of commercial, political and even military ties around the world, the author wrote.

"Putin is a very pragmatic politician playing a sophisticated game of chess," the article read.

Russian ties with Israel are a good example, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu having visited Moscow for four times in 2016. The initial reason was Israel’s concern over the Syrian war and Russia’s support for President Bashar Assad. However, then Moscow and Jerusalem turned to developing commercial ties, including a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union and Israel.

The same scheme was used by the Kremlin with Saudi Arabia. A year ago, a high-profile Saudi delegation visited Moscow. Since then, Russia and Saudi Arabia have built close cooperation, backed by a common problem – low oil prices. Moscow also took advantage of the souring ties between Riyadh and Washington.

Recently, Turkey and Russia have started the process of normalization after tensions between the two deepened last November. Cooperation between Moscow and Ankara would be constructive not only in economics but also in politics, especially in the Middle East, the article read.

Last but not least is Russia’s blooming cooperation with China. The Kremlin has long been pushing for closer economic ties with Beijing but China is not that confident in the Russian economy. But the situation is much better in political and military cooperation.