The purpose of this article is to analyze the role of Russia as an arms and military equipment exporter in the strengthening of regional security in the Middle East. As Russia is the second largest arms and military equipment supplier to the region, it is important to assess this fact not only from the perspective of Russia's national interests, but also with regards to its consequences for the region itself. The study is based on international and national data on international trade in arms and military equipment, analytical materials in this area, as well as on legal acts, official statements and interviews with representatives of the relevant Russian and foreign agencies. The article examines the position of the Middle East in the world arms trade. It also analyzes Russia’s contribution to strengthening the national defense systems of individual states of the region (Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey) based on their military and military-technical cooperation with Russia. It concludes that the military and military-technical dimension of Russian foreign policy has a predominantly constructive influence on the regional stability and security, while also indicating some negative consequences and formulating potential ‘constraints’ to the development of military-technical cooperation between Russia and the states of the region. The results of the study allow one to look at the role of Russia in the Middle East from a new perspective and make a forecast regarding the development of the situation in the region taking into consideration its lingering internal instability and in the context of its transformation into an arena of confrontation between world and regional powers.
Middle East; military-technical cooperation; regional stability; arms and military equipment supply; combatting international terrorism; air defense.