How Moscow lost Riyadh in 1938

[TomSea]

BTW, this is from a year ago. Excerpt:

How Moscow lost Riyadh in 1938
Russian-Saudi relations could be very different today, if Stalin hadn't killed the Soviet ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
by Yury Barmin
15 Oct 2017

This shouldn't be all that surprising given that Russia and Saudi Arabia had a 54-year break in relations, during which the US became Riyadh's dominant partner and security guarantor. Perhaps the outcome of King Salman's visit could have been very different, if it weren't for an incident that spoiled Russian-Saudi relations 80 years ago and caused the break.

It is a little-known fact that Riyadh and Moscow used to enjoy remarkably warm relations in the 1920s and 30s. The Soviet Union was, in fact, a diplomatic pioneer in Saudi Arabia: It was the first state to recognise Abdulaziz Al Saud (King Salman's father) as the King of the Hijaz and the Sultan of Nejd in February 1926.

The Soviet charm offensive in the Arabian Peninsula in the 1920s was the culmination of numerous attempts by Moscow to gain a foothold in the region prior to that. As early as 1900, Russian imperial military vessels started frequenting the Gulf and making port calls in Kuwait among other destinations. The famous Russian Varyag cruiser visited Kuwait in December 1901 and its captain was greeted by Emir Mubarak Al Sabah despite his agreement with Great Britain not to receive foreign military guests. It was during this visit that the Russians were first introduced to Abdul Rahman Al Saud who was exiled in Kuwait at that time, along with his elder son Abdulaziz, who a year later retook Riaydh from their rivals, the House of Rashid.

Read more at: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/moscow-lost-riyadh-1938-171014113525997.html