Saudi, Gulf leaders congratulate Russia’s Putin on election win
Saudi Arabia’s leaders sent congratulatory messages and spoke with the Russian President following his re-election that saw him win 87 percent of the vote.
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent cable messages congratulating Vladimir Putin, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
MBS also congratulated Putin by call and “highlighted the strong relationship between the two countries and explored avenues for further cooperation,” the SPA report said. This marks Putin's fifth term in office.
Russia is a long-term strategic partner to Saudi and other Arab-Gulf countries, and a member of the OPEC+ group of oil producing countries, of which some GCC nations are a part.
Putin visited the Middle East December last year and met with MBS.
Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries also extended greetings and best wishes to Putin on his re-election.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan on Monday congratulated Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on his re-election and offered to mediate between Moscow and Ukraine, the Turkish presidency announced.
In a telephone conversation, “President Erdogan expressed his belief that the positive evolution of relations between Turkey and Russia were continuing and stated that Turkey was ready to play a facilitator role to return to the negotiating table with Ukraine,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement.
It is not the first time that Erdogan has offered his services as a mediator in the war as he seeks to maintain friendly relations with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
All three countries have a coastline on the Black Sea, whose access Turkey controls through the Turkish Straits.
Erdogan welcomed Zelenskyy to Istanbul at the beginning of this month while Putin was due to visit Turkey in February before he called off the trip.
But Turkey’s top diplomat, Hakan Fidan, hit out at “dangerous” rhetoric coming from both Europe and Moscow.