BOOK REVIEW: How Russia sees itself in Middle East

RUSSIA AND THE ARABS

By Yevgeny Primakov

Basic Books, $29.95, 400 pages

Reviewed by Joseph C. Goulden

With the world nearing crisis mode over the Iranian nuclear initiative, what support can the United States expect from the USSR? Yevgeny Primakov held three of the top positions in the Russian government - head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (successor to the KGB), foreign minister and then prime minister. And in a timely book, Mr. Primakov has what sounds like reassuring thoughts on what Moscow might be thinking at the moment.

Mr. Primakov notes repeated threats by Iranian leaders “to wipe Israel off the map,” then comments, “I feel sure that nobody - including Russia - would allow that message to be made a reality.”

He is dubious about the efficacy of economic sanctions. “If the hope is to motivate more realistically minded figures to seize the upper hand in the Iranian leadership, then it’s hard to see how sanctions - which would hit ordinary people hardest - would help tip the balance of power toward them. On the contrary, as the example of Iraq had taught us, Iranian politics would become increasingly radicalized.”

Regardless of how the Iranian nuclear scenario plays out in the coming days, it is yet another episode in the history of a region wracked with turmoil in the post-1945 era. Mr. Primakov’s book offers an insight into how Moscow perceived what was happening in the region.

Perhaps I am unduly cynical, but when I read a book by a former intelligence officer, regardless of who he served, I reflexively wonder whether I am being presented an approximation of the truth or a message with a deliberate spin. Such is certainly the case with Mr. Primakov’s work.

For one thing, Mr. Primakov’s resume veritably shouts out, loudly, “spook.” He holds a doctorate, headed two think tanks in the old USSR and had stints as a correspondent in the Middle East for the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union - positions that are well known as cover assignments for a KGB officer.

So, unsurprisingly, when the USSR collapses, he pops up as head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, with posts as foreign minister and prime minister following. In whatever capacity, he spent his years at the epicenter of public life in Moscow.

In any event, here are some major points made by Mr. Primakov as he reviews his decades in the Middle East, and what he feels were the forces that shaped the region. He offers a benign picture of the Soviet role:

c Contrary to what Western intelligence agencies felt at the time, the Soviet Union played no role in the nationalist coups that toppled governments in Egypt, Iraq and Syria at mid-century. “It built links with their new leaders - or rather the new leaders built links - but this was after their revolutions. These leaders seized power not because of any plots orchestrated by Moscow, but because of the collapse of the policies of Britain and France, imposed either directly or by their corrupt Arab representatives.”

c Policies of the former colonial parties, “and later those of the United States,” drove a number of Arab countries into partnership with the Soviets. He relates how a British ambassador repeatedly called Egyptian King Farouk “my boy.”

c The Soviets’ relationships with these nationalist governments “were not ideologically socialist, developed slowly, and were far from easy to maintain.”

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