- 1 minute ago
Uncover how Russia secretly shaped the Middle East — and why its influence still haunts us.
👉 What World Leaders NEED to Know about Russia: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6d9EIByxz1AdkmIOYUlrDd0rmByq5zSN
Why does the world look away from so many wars—yet focus obsessively on the Middle East? The answer lies in the hidden legacy of the Cold War. In this video, I reveal how the Soviet Union—and later, modern Russia—planted powerful narratives that continue to shape global views of the Middle East today. From secret propaganda campaigns to military footholds, you’ll discover the shocking truth behind Russia’s lasting influence in the region.
Video Chapters:
00:00 The Shocking Truth About Russia’s Influence in the Middle East
01:12 What Exactly Did Russians Want in the Middle East?
06:53 The USSR, the Jews, and Israel
11:17 The Anti-Colonial Narrative
16:16 Financial and Military Aid
19:41 Syria: Moscow’s Last Stronghold
22:28 The New Gulf Safe Haven
👉 JOIN ME ON THE JOURNEY Sign-up for news about the New Book here: https://elvirabary.com/elvira-barys-newsletter/
MY HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK SERIES
➡️ Russian Treasures (a historical novel about the Bolshevik Revolution
👉 What World Leaders NEED to Know about Russia: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6d9EIByxz1AdkmIOYUlrDd0rmByq5zSN
Why does the world look away from so many wars—yet focus obsessively on the Middle East? The answer lies in the hidden legacy of the Cold War. In this video, I reveal how the Soviet Union—and later, modern Russia—planted powerful narratives that continue to shape global views of the Middle East today. From secret propaganda campaigns to military footholds, you’ll discover the shocking truth behind Russia’s lasting influence in the region.
Video Chapters:
00:00 The Shocking Truth About Russia’s Influence in the Middle East
01:12 What Exactly Did Russians Want in the Middle East?
06:53 The USSR, the Jews, and Israel
11:17 The Anti-Colonial Narrative
16:16 Financial and Military Aid
19:41 Syria: Moscow’s Last Stronghold
22:28 The New Gulf Safe Haven
👉 JOIN ME ON THE JOURNEY Sign-up for news about the New Book here: https://elvirabary.com/elvira-barys-newsletter/
MY HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK SERIES
➡️ Russian Treasures (a historical novel about the Bolshevik Revolution
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Wars in Gulf countries, human rights crumble beneath the boots of dictators,
00:06whole regions sink into chaos, and yet the world barely blinks.
00:11But when violence erupts in the Middle East, especially around Gaza,
00:16suddenly the world stops to watch. Why? Is it about money? No.
00:22The wealthy oil states commit their share of atrocities, yet the world politely looks away.
00:28Is it religion or ancient history? Maybe.
00:32But most people can't even point to these sacred places on a map.
00:36The truth is far more sinister. We are trapped in the aftershocks of the Cold War,
00:42a secret battle of narratives planted decades ago. The Soviet Union may be dead,
00:48but its stories still rule us. We repeat slogans written in Moscow without even knowing it.
00:55My name is Elira Barry. Born in the Soviet Union, I know firsthand how powerful propaganda can be.
01:01Today, I'll uncover exactly how the Kremlin planted its seeds of influence across the Middle East.
01:08Seeds that still shape the way millions of Westerners see the region.
01:17What exactly did Russians want in the Middle East?
01:21Historically, their interest rested on three pillars.
01:25First, support for Orthodox religious missions in the Holy Land.
01:30Second, access to military bases in the Eastern Mediterranean to protect vital trade routes.
01:37Third, and perhaps most importantly, rivalry with the West.
01:43Long before red flags flew over the Kremlin, Russian pilgrims trudged toward Jerusalem.
01:49By the mid-19th century, as many as 7,000 a year braved the long and dangerous journey to bow
01:56before the Holy Sepulchre.
01:57To shelter them, the Russian-Palestine society bought land and built what locals still call the Russian Compound –
02:04grand stone courtyards that served as hostels for pilgrims.
02:09It was not only about faith. Nobles and merchants brought money.
02:14Their presence meant income for church coffers and for Russia's consular budgets.
02:20Supporting orthodoxy was more than piety. It was political glue.
02:24Because in truth, Russian society was fragmented. The elites did not even speak Russian at home.
02:30They spoke French.
02:33Between rulers and ruled, there was no unifying bond except the Orthodox faith.
02:39Without it, the empire would have looked like what it really was – a colonial occupation.
02:46So, Orthodoxy became the banner of the regime.
02:49Inside the empire, it meant restricting other religions, especially Judaism.
02:55Abroad, it meant military and diplomatic campaigns to defend Orthodox holy sites and Orthodox Slavic peoples.
03:03But for those people, it brought no prosperity.
03:07Their lands became battlefields where two great empires – Ottoman and Russian – clashed over prestige and territory.
03:15The peasants back home, two-third of them illiterate, barely understood the reasons.
03:20They only wanted one thing – that ours would defeat theirs.
03:26And Russia needed to win. Because the empire's budget depended heavily on grain exports.
03:34Yet the Ottomans controlled the straits, the narrow gates between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
03:40When your enemy controls your lifeline, you either bow or fight.
03:46So, they fought.
03:47Again and again, the Ottoman Empire was weakening.
03:51It never managed to industrialize.
03:53So, Russia extracted concessions piece by piece.
03:57That ensured relatively steady grain exports, which in those days were as critical as oil is today.
04:05But world politics was never been driven only by trade or religion.
04:10It has also been driven, perhaps more than anything, by the ancient instinct of male rivalry.
04:18I've made another video about this and I encourage you to watch it.
04:22Because once you understand how these ancient behavioral patterns shape decisions,
04:28the world map suddenly makes sense.
04:31For men of the hunter personality archetype, life itself feels meaningless without the frill of victory.
04:37At home, if their power is unchallenged, they instinctively look abroad for rivals.
04:44They crave the contest, the fight, the prize.
04:48And they'll dress it up however they must – in faith, in patriotism, in economic necessity.
04:55But beneath the noble words is something raw and primal – the desire for a duel.
05:02And because they value their own ambitions about the lives of others,
05:07they feel entitled to sacrifice people in the name of a holy cause.
05:12That was the mindset of Russian elites throughout the 19th century.
05:17And not only Russia's – Britain, France, Austria – they all played the same game.
05:23From the palaces of London, Paris, and St. Petersburg, it looked almost like sport.
05:28Orders given, dispatchers read, maps covered in flags and arrows.
05:34Men in epaulets, posing proudly over the chessboard of the world.
05:39They never carried the burden of their choices.
05:43Others did the dying.
05:45That is why Russian emperors entangled themselves in the Middle East.
05:50Not just for religion. Not just for trade.
05:54But because it was part of the great game.
05:57And the thrill of beating their rivals was a reward in itself.
06:01Before we move to the next part – how the Soviet Union shaped Middle Eastern narratives
06:06that still define how we in the West see the region today – I want to thank you for supporting
06:12this channel.
06:13You can do so with a super thanks or buying me a coffee.
06:18This channel exists because of you. It's my full-time work and your support makes it possible.
06:24And if you are fascinated by Russian history, let me give you a tip.
06:29The best way to truly understand Russia is through literature.
06:33Textbooks give you facts. Stories give you lives.
06:37That's why I wrote my Russian treasures series.
06:40Carefully researched novels that immerse you in worlds most Western readers never knew existed.
06:47They are on Amazon waiting for you.
06:50Now, let's return to the Middle East.
06:57We cannot talk about Russia's role in the Middle East without first looking at the Jews.
07:04At the turn of the 20th century, the Russian Empire held the largest Jewish community on Earth,
07:10over 5 million people in 1897. More than half of all Jews worldwide.
07:17This wasn't by design. For centuries, Jews had migrated across North Africa and Europe,
07:24refusing to assimilate or abandon their faith. Many eventually settled in what is now Ukraine
07:30in Belarus because local rulers allowed them. Then those lands fell to the Russian Empire.
07:37And because Russia believed it had a sacred duty to defend orthodoxy, the Jews quickly found
07:43themselves pushed to the margins. They were restricted in education, in movement, in careers.
07:50They paid heavier taxes. And then came the pogroms of the 1880s.
07:56Waves of violence that convinced many young Jews there was no safety, no equality,
08:02unless they built a homeland of their own in Palestine.
08:06At that point, Jewish youth split into two camps. Some dreamed of revolution inside Russia,
08:13tearing down the old system and building a just state. Others dreamed of a Jewish homeland in
08:19Palestine, then under British control. Those who chose Palestine began raising money to buy land
08:27and establish the first Jewish settlements. Settlings that decades later would grow into
08:33the state of Israel. Those who chose socialism found themselves in official positions inside the young
08:41Soviet Union. They were literate, organized, and the old Russian bureaucracy had been wiped out
08:47by civil war. For a moment, it seemed as if Jews might finally find a place inside the new system.
08:55But the Soviet economy collapsed again and again under its own laws. And when it did,
09:02ordinary citizens pointed the finger. The Jews are to blame. Waves of anti-Semitism returned,
09:09sometimes quiet, sometimes vicious, but always there. By the late 1940s, many Jews were desperate to
09:19leave the Soviet Union, especially after Israel was found in 1948. But to the Kremlin, this was outrageous.
09:29How could people want to leave the most progressive and happy country in the world? Travel abroad in the
09:35USSR was a mark of privilege. It meant access to goods and luxuries unimaginable for ordinary citizens.
09:42And the idea that Soviet Jews should enjoy that privilege enraged the KGB. So, the state did
09:49everything possible to keep them trapped. Meanwhile, the Jewish lobby in the United States did everything
09:55it could to get them out because Israel desperately needed new citizens after 6 million Jews had been
10:02slaughtered during the Holocaust. Here lies a cruel irony. The USSR actually supported the creation of
10:09Israel in 1948. Why? Because by then, the Cold War was raging and Moscow wanted to strike a blow
10:19against Britain, which still controlled Palestine. But the Israelis had no intention of building socialism.
10:27And the Soviet Union couldn't give them what they truly needed to survive.
10:31Yes, Moscow could send weapons left over from the Second World War, but money to rebuild the nation?
10:37Impossible. The Soviet economy lay in ruins. Its war scorched territories still struggling to recover.
10:45That is why Israel turned to the only power that could provide it a lifeline – the USA.
10:52To the Kremlin, it felt like betrayal. And from that moment, Soviet policy hardened.
11:00At home, the state unleashed a flood of anti-Israel propaganda.
11:05Abroad, it armed and funded every enemy of Israel it could find.
11:10That pattern lasted for decades, and its echoes still shape how millions of people view the Middle East today.
11:21After the Soviet Union abandoned Orthodoxy as its unifying idea, it needed something else.
11:27Something simple, powerful, and impossible to argue against.
11:31Something that would divide the world into us and them at a single glance.
11:38And they found it. Anti-colonialism. It was brilliant.
11:43On the Middle East stage, it played like wildfire.
11:48The narrative united unlikely allies, hardened socialists, and Islamists dreaming of the golden age of Arab
11:56civilization when the Arab world had been the most advanced, literate, and powerful force in the region.
12:03People longed to restore that greatness. Moscow knew exactly what to do.
12:07Gather the enemies of Israel, and therefore of the United States, into one coalition with the USSR at the helm.
12:14Win even one convincing victory.
12:17And you could claim the moral high ground in the eyes of the world community.
12:22But to draw allies in, you needed a story. A narrative so clear, so emotionally charged,
12:28that anyone who supported you instantly became the good guy. And anyone who opposed you, the villain.
12:36The trick was simple. Offer the world a formula. Declare it absolute good. Erase anything that contradicted it as irrelevant.
12:47Anti-colonialism. What could be against it?
12:50And you didn't have to look too closely at the liberators who replaced the colonizers.
12:56Their power struggles. Their corruption. Their cruelty to their own people.
13:01And the aid they siphoned the way into private pockets.
13:06If anyone dared to point that out, the answer was ready.
13:09Oh, so you want these poor nations to remain under the boot of evil colonizers?
13:15And suddenly, there were only two choices on the table.
13:19Oppression by Western colonial powers or oppression by local warlords and corrupt elites bought and paid for by some other
13:29country.
13:30Everything else disappeared from the discussion.
13:33But a narrative? No matter how powerful needs carriers, messengers and Moscow knew where to find them.
13:40In the West, countless intellectuals were hungry for recognition.
13:45Their books barely sold. Their ideas rarely found an audience.
13:50They weren't athletes or actors.
13:53Just clever, restless minds earning for validation and, if we are honest, the attention of beautiful women.
14:00Then, suddenly, they were invited to special events.
14:07Treated with admiration. Told how brilliant, how sensitive, how refined they were.
14:13A mysterious woman appeared, speaking their language with a charming accent.
14:19New connections opened doors. Small publications printed their work.
14:24The pay wasn't huge, but enough to ease the struggle.
14:28They had become part of a circle. A world where they were admired, welcomed and, for once, truly listened to.
14:37And that world opened doors they never imagined.
14:41Invitations to Poland, to Czechoslovakia or even to the mysterious magnetic Russia.
14:48Always under the banner of cultural exchange.
14:51There, they were treated like stars. Lavish dinners. Ballet at the Bolshoi.
14:57Lectures before white-eyed students who looked at them as if they were demigods.
15:03Were they recruited agents? No.
15:06Were they paid by the KGB? Not directly.
15:10They were simply fighting for peace, justice and anti-colonialism.
15:15They defended the narratives of Middle Eastern struggle.
15:18Narratives carefully seeded by respected mentors or sympathetic editors.
15:23Few of them had ever seen the region for themselves.
15:26Fewer still had the time or will to question what was real.
15:31In their world, repeating the right message wasn't just safe. It was virtuous.
15:38A kind of moral badge.
15:40This is good. This is evil.
15:44And if you want to be accepted, respected and heard, you knew what gospel to recite.
15:51They never saw the truth that the entire celebration was paid for by Moscow with money squeezed from the Soviet
15:58people who could barely afford their food and clothing.
16:00But they didn't want to see it because inside their circle, inside their cause, they finally felt what they had
16:10craved all along.
16:12Meaning, recognition and belonging.
16:15Bingo.
16:21The Soviet Union could never hope to outcompete the West in economics.
16:27Its factories produced tanks faster than tractors and its stores had more slogans than winter boots.
16:33But the anti-colonial narrative gave Moscow another weapon.
16:37When Western lenders hesitated to fund Egypt's Aswan High Dam, Khrushchev swept in.
16:44A $100 million credit line.
16:47Thousands of Soviet engineers.
16:50Enough cement to bend the Nile itself.
16:53From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, Moscow poured over a billion dollars' worth of bombers,
16:58tanks and rudder systems into Egypt and Syria, paid for not with cash, but with cotton and rice.
17:07Back home, ordinary Soviet citizens lived in obvious poverty, querying for bread and dreaming of basic comforts.
17:15But the elites did not notice.
17:18They were too busy forging alliances meant to show Americans and Israel who was boss.
17:24Meanwhile, in training camps under Moscow's supervision, young Arab militants drilled in guerrilla warfare.
17:31They learned how to handle modern weapons, how to plant explosives and how to fight a war that never ended.
17:38All of it wrapped in the banner of anti-colonial struggle.
17:42But in truth, it wasn't about freedom.
17:45It was about ensuring peace never came.
17:48Because in the Eastern Mediterranean, peace was bad business.
17:51Local rulers learned the lesson quickly.
17:54Present yourself as a threat and you got money, weapons and influence.
17:59Seek compromise.
18:01And you risk being toppled by rivals armed and funded from abroad.
18:05Let's be clear.
18:06Not everything in the Middle East was scripted in Moscow.
18:10The Muslim world had its own rivalries.
18:13Turkey, Iran, the oil kingdoms of the Gulf all had interests and agendas.
18:18But the fact remains.
18:20The Kremlin pushed hard to turn every spark into a fire, every scratch into a wound that never healed.
18:27The Soviet Union backed the Arabs in every war against Israel.
18:31And when that failed to deliver victory, Moscow shifted tactics.
18:36In the second part of the 20th century, literacy rates had soared.
18:41People listened to the radio, watched television and read newspapers.
18:46In democratic countries, public opinion now had the power to shape policy.
18:51So the Kremlin set out to shape that opinion.
18:55Keep the anti-colonial struggle alive.
18:57Stir outrage.
18:59Make sure the Middle East was always a wound the world could not ignore.
19:03Create a world where anger earns social prestige, while compromise costs you everything.
19:10And to sustain this storm, you needed resources.
19:15Money for propaganda.
19:16Bribes for officials.
19:18Salaries for useful activists.
19:21Weapons for fighters.
19:22False passports printed not in back rooms, but on state-owned presses.
19:28And most of all, you needed terror.
19:31Hijackings.
19:32Hostage-takings.
19:33Acts so shocking that Israel was for to strike back.
19:37And every strike deepened the cycle of violence.
19:46If there is one place in the Middle East where Moscow has planted its flag and refused to let go,
19:52it is Syria.
19:53The partnership began in the 1950s.
19:55The Cold War was heating up and Washington was cementing alliances with Turkey, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.
20:02Moscow needed a foothold and found it in Damascus.
20:06The Syrian rulers were eager.
20:09They wanted weapons to fight Israel and to strengthen their shaky regime.
20:13The Soviets were happy to provide them.
20:16Tanks rolled off ships in Latakia.
20:19MiGs screamed over desert skies.
20:22Thousands of Syrian officers trained in Soviet academies
20:25while Russian advisors set up bases and camps on Syrian soil.
20:29The relationship deepened after Egypt's answar Sadat broke away from Moscow in the 1970s
20:36and turned to Washington.
20:38Suddenly, Syria was the last Arab ally the Soviet could fully trust.
20:43And trust meant investment.
20:45Billions in arms.
20:47Engineers to build infrastructure.
20:49Secret police trainee.
20:51Another expert the Kremlin specialized in.
20:54For decades, Syria gave Moscow what it craved.
20:57A presence in the eastern Mediterranean.
21:00The Tartars Naval facility opened in 1971 was the jewel in the crown.
21:06Small by Western standards, but symbolically priceless.
21:11Russia's only warm water port outside the Soviet Union.
21:14Then came the collapse of the USSR.
21:18Funding dried up.
21:19Russian ships stopped calling a Tartars.
21:22For a while, it looked like the bond might dissolve.
21:26But history had other plans.
21:29When Syria plunged into civil war in 2011,
21:33Bashar al-Assad was on the verge of collapse.
21:37Western leaders demanded he step down.
21:41Rebel groups closed in on Damascus.
21:44And then, in 2015, Russia intervened.
21:49Its warplanes launched from Kmeimim Airbus near Latakia, striking rebel positions.
21:56Russian advisors helped stabilize Syrian forces.
22:00Putin claimed it was about fighting terrorism.
22:03But the real aim was to save Assad and reassert Russia's role in the region.
22:10But when Russia became bogged down in its full-scale war in Ukraine,
22:15it could no longer support Assad at the same level.
22:19His regime collapsed and the dictator was forced to flee to Moscow.
22:24Today, the positions of Russia's military bases in Syria is precarious.
22:33During the Cold War, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies were everything the Soviet Union despised.
22:39Western aligned, oil rich, deeply religious, and firmly anti-communist.
22:45Moscow backed their enemies, Iraq, Syria, and Nasser's Egypt.
22:50The Gulf states, in turn, pumped oil into global markets and helped drive down prices, weakening the Soviet economy.
22:58But time and desperation change everything.
23:02After the fall of the USSR, Russia no longer had the luxury of picking enemies based on ideology.
23:08It needed partners.
23:10Russia's partnership with OPEC-plus began in 2016 when it joined forces with Saudi Arabia and other producers to stabilize
23:18oil prices after global glut.
23:20The cooperation was historic.
23:22For the first time, a non-OPEC giant aligned with the cartel to manage supply.
23:29Over the years, the alliance known as OPEC-plus has used coordinated production cuts and increases to influence global markets.
23:38Today, amid sanctions and falling revenues from its war in Ukraine, Russia remains deeply reliant on OPEC-plus ties.
23:46But tensions are visible.
23:48In August 2025, the group agreed to a major output increase to regain market share, pushing prices down toward the
23:57mid-$60 and raising questions about whether Russia can meet its quarters while financing its costly war.
24:04When war broke out in Ukraine, many wealthy Russians needed to vanish and fast.
24:09Western sanctions froze their assets, banned flights, and imposed travel restrictions in Europe and America.
24:16But Dubai opened its arms.
24:20Although no official data exists, research suggests that several hundred thousand Russians acquired UAE residency from 2022 to 2024.
24:30Russians have emerged as one of the top nationalities among property buyers, investing billions in residential real estate.
24:40In Dubai's elite districts, Marina Bay, Palm Jumeirah, and downtown, Russians are everywhere.
24:47Chefs launched high-end Russian restaurants.
24:50Private bankers, real estate agents, and crypto consultants scrambled to serve oligarchs, tech entrepreneurs, influencers, and businessmen finding ways around
25:00sanctions.
25:01With the Kremlin floundering in Ukraine, Russia's elites looked to preserve capital, and Dubai became one of the few accessible
25:09lifelines.
25:11If this video opened your eyes, if it helps you understand the hidden threads connecting Russia to today's Middle East,
25:19then please take a moment to like, share, and subscribe.
25:23Your support helps the story reach more people who desperately need to hear it.
25:29And a special note, at the end of this video, you'll see the closing credits featuring all the incredible viewers
25:36who've given my channel a super thanks.
25:39Your generosity makes this deep dive storytelling possible.
25:44If you'd like to join them, just click the super thanks button below or buy me a coffee using the
25:50link in the description.
25:51Thank you for being here, thank you for your curiosity, and remember, the truth is always deeper than the headlines.
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