Russia Offers Arms Sales as Saudi Arabia Rages Against Biden

Russian media on Thursday boasted that Moscow stands ready to become a primary supplier of arms to Saudi Arabia if the Biden administration makes good on its threats to cut back on military sales to the Kingdom.

Russian newspaper Izvestia quoted Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy chief of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, advising the Saudis and other Persian Gulf states to stand firm against bullying from the Biden team, which was enraged by Saudi-led OPEC announcing massive oil production cuts a month before the U.S. midterm elections.

“If the US continues to threaten Persian Gulf countries with disrupted weapons supplies, Russia could easily replace American suppliers in that market. Those countries are solvent and were able to see Russian weapons in combat action in Syria,” Dzhabarov said.

Russia’s former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Andrey Baklanov, pumped the brakes a little by pointing out to Izvestia that over 80 percent of the weapons in Saudi Arabia’s inventory are American-made, so they will remain dependent on U.S. parts and supplies for a long time to come, even if they begin buying some Russian hardware.

Baklanov also doubted the U.S. would halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia completely, no matter how angry the Biden administration might be, because the Saudis spend a great deal of money on American weapons.

“This could be a lever of pressure on Riyadh. And yet the US will hardly abandon such a promising market, because Saudi Arabia buys 53% of weapons the U.S. supplies to the region, and the country is the leading procurement center in the entire Middle East,” he said.

On the other hand, Asia expert Vyacheslav Matuzov suggested an opportunity for Russia to make inroads with the Saudis has been created because the Biden administration’s rhetoric over the past week has been so heated that a complete walk back would be politically impossible.

“The U.S. has effectively cut off any escape routes with statements in the press, and Saudi Arabia has found itself cornered. This forced Riyadh and other Persian Gulf players to look for alternatives and to bolster cooperation with Russia, in particular,” he said.

Matuzov might be underestimating the eagerness of U.S. media to forget everything Joe Biden said yesterday, as soon as a new narrative from the White House lands in their inboxes. The diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia began with Biden’s aggressive talk on the 2020 campaign trail of making Riyadh a global “pariah” for the killing of writer and political activist Jamal Khashoggi, but when Biden’s crashing poll numbers obliged him to plead with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) for more oil in July, the media obligingly forgot about all that “pariah” talk.

U.S. media did not even hold Biden’s feet to the fire for coming away empty-handed in July, getting not a drop of oil in return for dropping the Khashoggi issue and other human rights concerns.

On Thursday, the Saudi government further embarrassed Biden by confirming swirling rumors that his administration tried to cajole and threaten OPEC into delaying its production cut for at least a month, reducing its impact on the Democratic Party’s already perilous position in the midterm election. 

The Saudis on Thursday insisted OPEC decided to reduce production for “purely economic” reasons and rebuffed Biden’s effort to help Democrats by putting the cuts off for a month because such a delay would have had “negative economic consequences.”

Riyadh also angrily rejected White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s assertion on Tuesday that OPEC’s goal was to “align their energy policy with Russia’s war aims and against the American people.”

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said Jean-Pierre’s statements were “not based on facts.”

“Saudi Arabia affirms that any attempts to distort the facts about the Kingdom’s position regarding the crisis in Ukraine are unfortunate, and will not change the Kingdom’s principled position,” the ministry said.

Biden on Tuesday threatened “consequences” for the Saudis, while his administration muttered darkly about “re-evaluating” its relationship with America’s longtime Middle Eastern ally.

Prominent members of Biden’s party were already urging the administration to cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia. One Democrat, Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, expressly told the Saudis to do business with Moscow instead.

“If they like the Russians so much they can use their very ‘reliable’ military technology,” Gallego sneered.

CNN on Wednesday quoted other Democrats echoing the Biden administration’s rhetoric that Saudi Arabia has chosen to ally itself with Russia instead of the United States:

Senate Foreign Affairs Chairman Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, called for an immediate freeze in US-Saudi relations after OPEC announced decreasing oil production last week, pledging that he “will not green-light any cooperation with Riyadh until the kingdom reassesses its position with respect to the war in Ukraine.” Another top Senate Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said Tuesday that Saudi Arabia “clearly” wants Russia to win the war in Ukraine and told CNN’s John Berman on ‘New Day’: “Let’s be very candid about this: it is Putin and Saudi Arabia against the United States.”

“Other members of Congress are concerned that halting U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia could push the country closer to Russia, which could negatively affect the ongoing Ukraine war,” CNN added, which would explain why the Russian officials quoted by Izvestia believe they have an opportunity to exploit.