This next virtual event of CIC National Capital Branch’s Middle East Study Group features Professor Nikolay Kozhanov who will review Russia’s involvement in the Middle East. It will be moderated by Gill Breton, a distinguished former Canadian diplomat who had three assignments at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow, during and after the Cold War.

Background:

Russian interest in the Middle East is an extension of an old Czarist thrust for an outlet to the Persian Gulf, dating from the time of Peter the Great. That interest was overlaid with the ideological desire for a worldwide USSR hegemony. After the collapse of the USSR, increasing Russian military interest in the Middle East seems both to protect its own interests in the area and to threaten the vital interests of the PRC, Europe, and the United States. During the Anglo-Russian Great Game and WWI, old Czarist Russia caused severe harm to Persia by balkanizing and annexing its northern and eastern provinces in the Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as crushing Persia’s popular democratic movement in support of constitutional monarchy. During WWII, the USSR in collaboration with Britain invaded Persia/Iran to take over the Iranian oil fields and other resources. Persia/Iran was neutral during both World Wars.

Bios of Panelists:

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