Russia Confronts Mideast SalafistsBy Courting Christians, Minorities
Russia is courting Middle Eastern minorities, especially Christians, in a bid to confront Salafist extremism, writes an Al-Monitor correspondent in Beirut.
Two main points are worth examining from the visit of Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov to Lebanon.
First, the visit took place in the absence of an effective government in Lebanon. Russian sources had expected the visit to be postponed until the formation of a new government, but the Russian Foreign Ministry insisted that it take place on the scheduled date.
Diplomatic sources say the visit took place in the presence of a government that had resigned because Moscow has adopted a new vision of its relations with Lebanon. Thus, it no longer limits its interest to its friendship with the Lebanese state, but also seeks to establish relations with all Lebanese political forces of all sects because it knows that the state in Lebanon is the weakest party in its internal political equations.
Consequently, Moscow's new orientation in the framework of its plan to find political influence in Lebanon is to build horizontal links within the country’s political map with a focus on the common element that links it to the Lebanese Orthodox population.
