Russian President Vladimir Putin has assured that Russia will continue to expand and deepen cooperation with the Arab and Islamic world. He said this at his annual press conference.
"Relations with the Arab world are traditional for Russia as a whole, for the Soviet Union, and for today's Russian Federation. We have very stable, long-standing ties that go back deep into the centuries. And today they tend to expand," he said. Putin recalled that if in Soviet times it was still due to certain ideological considerations, now, in his words, "the volume and geography of our cooperation with the Arab world, with the Islamic world have become much wider." "We value it very much and will further develop these relations," the president promised.
Putin reminded that the RDIF cooperates with practically all global sovereign investment funds. He stressed that some Arab investment funds have unique relations with them. "They trust the Russian Direct Investment Fund so much that they decided to automatically co-finance all the projects in which the Russian Direct Investment Fund enters. This shows the level of trust and the quality of our cooperation," the Russian leader said.
Speaking about the role of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov in developing cooperation with the Arab world, the president noted that Kadyrov "plays the same role in this as all other heads of regions of the Russian Federation." "Generally, foreign policy is led by the Russian Foreign Ministry, but the regions always make a very noticeable, significant contribution to the efforts of the country's Foreign Ministry. As for the Arab world, the Islamic world in general, we have traditional relations with these organizations and countries. Russia is an observer in some authoritative Islamic organizations," he said.
At the press conference, a media representative thanked the President and Russian authorities for "not abandoning sociologist Maxim Shugaley and his interpreter" detained in Libya, specifying that they had recently been released from prison. "This brings me back to the question from Grozny about our cooperation with the Arab world. We did this [the release of the citizens] primarily thanks to the cooperation of some of our friends in Arab countries, who assisted us in this case as well," Putin responded.
About the sociologist
National Values Protection Foundation staff members Maxim Shugaley and Samer Swayfan were detained in Libya in May 2019. The government prosecutor general's office in Tripoli accused them, among other things, of interfering in internal affairs and elections in Libya, conducting public work in the country without the permission of local authorities and security agencies. In addition, according to the prosecutor's office, the Russians traveled to places they were not allowed to visit. Last week, Shugaley and Swayfan were released from prison in Libya.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS