Russia should embrace Saudi Arabia’s flourishing cultural scene

Saudi Arabia is going through a “first ever” phase of its history as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman embarks on a mission to transform the Kingdom into a modern state. In the spirit of this slogan, Saudi Arabia hosted its first symphonic concerts as the Russian Mariinsky Orchestra performed at the inauguration of the Ithra Theater in Dhahran on June 16-17. The orchestra, led by its famed conductor Valery Gergiev, represents the prime brand of Russian culture that is recognizable all around the world.

The concerts in Dhahran were the first encounter Saudi audiences have had with Russian culture, and were arguably only a peek into a centuries-old tradition of theater, music and visual arts. It is these traditions that Russia has embraced in recent years as a tool of diplomacy, with Moscow promoting itself all across the Middle East. It has set up branches of a Russian version of USAID and Alliance Francaise, with the tongue-twisting name Rossotrudnichestvo, in Israel and Palestine, the UAE and Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey, all of which are reflective of the country’s current foreign policy priorities.

In the tradition of Soviet foreign policy, which looked to employ its soft power to attract non-aligned states in the Middle East and North Africa to its side in the ideological confrontation with the West, Russia is building on its heritage to solidify partnerships in the region. These attempts are perhaps most visible in Palestine and Syria, where Russia is running large humanitarian missions and where the Russian language is actively taught, including as part of the curriculum in Syria.

Saudi Arabia, however, has been markedly neglected by Russia as a hub for cultural exchanges, despite massively expanding religious ties and growing political and economic cooperation. It is thus notable that the recent trip of the Mariinsky Orchestra to Dhahran was jointly organized by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Saudi Aramco, the two companies that set up a $1 billion fund to invest in the energy sector last year and that are tasked with stepping up economic cooperation between the two countries. In fact, many pundits believe that RDIF’s investment activities are only a smokescreen for the extensive political role that it plays in pushing Russia’s foreign policies in the Middle East.

The nexus of Moscow’s soft power and traditional foreign policy is most visible in the UAE, where it went to great lengths to cater both to a massive Russian-speaking community and reach out to regular Emiratis by introducing them to Russian culture. As Moscow and Riyadh are expanding their cooperation and looking to cement their ties, it might be the right time for them to facilitate the forging of links between regular Russians and Saudis through cultural and education exchanges, which tend to serve as a stabilizing factor in bilateral relations when politics fail.

The flourishing Saudi arts scene presents ample opportunities for Russia, which has a lot to offer. As early as in the mid-2000s, Moscow came up with the idea of setting up a branch of its world-class Hermitage Museum in the Gulf. To that end, the museum’s leadership pitched the idea to UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan in 2006. The Hermitage, with one of the largest and most unique arts collections in the world and that has branches in Amsterdam and Venice, looked well positioned to establish a presence in the UAE. Eventually, it lost out to the Louvre, which opened its doors in Abu Dhabi in November 2017.

Against the backdrop of these events, Russian authorities came to realize that a Russian museum in the Gulf could be as powerful a political tool as signing an agreement on strategic cooperation. Speaking to the Russian-Arabian forum last year, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov again floated the proposal of opening a branch of the Hermitage in the Gulf. Saudi Arabia, whose arts scene is largely a blank canvas at the moment, would be an ideal hub for a joint museum project.

It is not only classical arts that Russia may offer to the Saudi audience, as Russian artists have also carved out a niche of their own in the modern arts. The likes of Aidan Salakhova, whose paintings and sculptures explore the role of a woman in Islam, have made a splash in Dubai and would most certainly resonate well with the Saudi government’s mission of women’s empowerment.

The deepening of cultural ties is a two-way street and Riyadh needs to step up its outreach to the Russians. In this context, the Saudi Culture Week that took place in Moscow in October last year and was linked to King Salman’s visit to Russia was a brave first step in that direction. The Saudi Culture Week demonstrated that the strengthening of humanitarian links is a powerful tool that ties nations together. So far, however, effective projects like this have been limited to occasional cultural events, meaning a political decision is needed to take the next step.

— Yury Barmin is a fellow at the Russian International Affairs Council, where he specializes in the Middle East and Russia’s policy in the region. He holds an M.Phil. from Cambridge University.

Twitter: @russia_mideast