Russia and the Arabs: Behind the Scenes in the Middle East from the Cold War to the Present,   ISBN:9780465004751

Customer Rating: 

As an American with a low-moderate level of interest in Russian and Middle Eastern politics, I appeciated the perspective of this book. Primakov worked in Russian politics, and his Soviet/Russian perspective on the Middle East is refreshing, decentering our focus from US-Middle East relations to Soviet-Middle East relations.

A memoir and reflection, this is clearly an end-of-career summing up type of book. Poliakov outlines the shift from colonialism to nationalism in the Middle East, how he understands Russia has having balanced out US imperialism in the region, and the negative role of the West, in which "the fact that these [Arab] revolutionary regimes came into conflict with the US can be blamed on American policy" (385). He advocates for continued Russian involvement in the region to counter US agendas.

This book has been well-translated from the Russian and is an interesting perspective for anyone curious about how a Russian views the Arab word and the role the region has played in US-Soviet relations.