Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 110

country “does not need to seek friendship with the
Muslim world. Our country is an organic part of this
[Muslim] world.”46
While Putin clearly identifies Russia as a largely Christian nation, he is attempting to establish a
dividing line between the shared values of believers
in many religious traditions and those of the secular
West. Increasingly, he emphasizes Russia’s shared
moral values with the Middle East, Asian, and other
non-Western societies. As part of this soft power
strategy, he seeks to exploit the differences between
the social values between the West and the predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East
and North Africa, for example, on issues such as
feminism and gay rights. By doing so, he is seeking
to transform Western values into a liability rather
than an asset for Western governments, with some
significant success.47
One apparent consequence of Putin’s outreach
initiatives is that in much of the Muslim world,
Russia is increasingly seen as a viable counterweight
to American influence.48 Acceptance of this view
can be expected to grow as the Muslim population in
Russia increases.
Additionally, Putin apparently feels secure enough
politically to ignore the pleas of Western governments
who have insisted that the Kremlin stop providing
assistance to the Islamic Republic of Iran to complete
work on its Bushehr nuclear reactor. He has further
taunted the West by sponsoring the education of
many Iranian nuclear scientists who have received
training from Russia.49 As a result, Putin has successfully used Iran as a lever to lessen U.S. influence
and trust among Middle Eastern nations while at the
same time exploiting the Sunni-Shia Islamic divide by
elevating the status of Shia Iran as a barrier to Sunni
radicalism in Russia’s interior.
Be that as it may, like the United States, Russia
probably harbors reservations of its own toward
Tehran’s quest to acquire a nuclear arsenal. No
doubt, some Russian leaders suspect that an emboldened, nuclear-armed Iran might someday try
to reclaim the “northern territories” of the former
Persian Empire currently circumscribed within the
Caucasus and Central Asia at the expense of Russia.
Such an eventuality is plausible based on projected
demographic changes in the region. According to
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some demographic projections, by the year 2050,
Russia’s population could shrink to as little as 100
million, while Iran by itself could grow to 90 million.
Moreover, by that time, Iran would be in an advantageous position vis-à-vis Russia in terms of oil and natural gas development as well as nuclear technologies.50

Reconstituting the Russian Empire
Russian President Vladimir Putin is well aware
of the existential threats his nation faces due to
changing demographics. In 2006, he described the
demographic decline as “the most acute problem in
contemporary Russia.”51 This is a circumstance that
Putin—the passionate Russian nationalist—can
be expected to try to reverse at almost any cost.
And just how would a leader of Putin’s background
and character do that? To answer that question,
it may be useful to review his background and the

January-February 2015  MILITARY REVIEW