‘With Door to the West Closed for At Least a Decade, Russia must Learn to Work with the Muslim World,’ Yakupov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 17 – Russia has been able to work more or less comfortably with the West for the last 20 to 30 years and has felt that it has no needs of “Arabs or anyone else, Linar Yakupov says. But now that door has been closed and not just for a short time but for 10 to 15 years. As a result, Russia must learn to work with the Muslim world.

            The head of the Foundation for the Development of Islamic Business and Finance and also the president of the Association of Regional Investment Agencies says that China won’t be sufficient as a partner to meet Russia’s needs by itself and that Moscow will need to look south (milliard.tatar/news/evropa-zakryta-na-10-15-let-nam-pridetsya-naucitsya-rabotat-s-musulmanskim-mirom-1982).

            For that to be effective, Yakupov continues, Moscow will not only have to pay more attention to the way in which the Muslim world and Russia can work together but change certain domestic arrangements in Russia, such as expanding the place of Islamic banking, to make Moscow a more attractive partner.

            “If we want to develop new ties, we must begin work with embassies and consulates,” he told a Kazan roundtable. Logistical chains must be reordered and new air links established. All the resources of the country must be mobilized including people who know how to interact with these countries.” Among them will certainly be the Tatars.

            Russian universities must stop focusing on Europe alone and begin to train more people who can work with Muslim countries. The doors to the West “are closed to us for the next ten to fifteen years, and nothing good is going to come from that direction anytime soon, Yakupov continues.

            “Whether we want it or not,” he says, “the majority of that portion of the world which is now open for us is the Muslim world. We have to learn how to work with it. The main leitmotif must be not in the attraction of investments but in the establishment of good economic and cultural ties, not in words but in fact.”  

            Russia must recognize that this new linkage with the Muslim world is not some short-term thing. It will define the future as far as anyone can see, Yakupov suggests.