Putin Finds Egypt Firmly Allied With U.S.
AP
Date: 04-27-05
By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt - The last time a leader from Moscow made a state visit to Egypt ? 40 years ago ? he changed the course of the Nile with the press of a button. But those were the heady days of Egyptian-Soviet ties, when Egypt was buying weapons and getting help for building the Aswan High Dam.
With Moscow's influence in the Middle East squeezed out by Washington's, no Russian leader has made an official visit since. On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin found an Egypt that is firmly allied with the United States, its old bond with Moscow a distant memory.
In the 1960s and 70s, Egypt hosted thousands of Russian troops and technicians and their families, but their most visible presence now is in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, where Russian tourists flock to the beaches on cheap flights.
It saddens those who cherish the memory of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptian president who built the alliance with Moscow. "The Soviet Union helped build Egypt as an economy and nation independent of the colonial powers," said Ahmed Thabit, a Cairo University professor of politics.
"From the Soviet times, we have the High Dam, we have the factories of heavy industry," said Thabit, a member of the Nasserite Party and of Egypt's new reform movement, Kifaya. "All we see from the Americans is blue jeans, soft drinks and hamburgers."
When Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev came here in 1964, Nasser was an icon of Third World anti-imperialism, implementing socialism at home and standing up to the United States and Britain ? which in the Cold War era meant a turn toward the Soviet Union.
Nasser made his first arms deal with the Soviet bloc in 1955, buying Czech weapons. Soviet advisers were helping build Egyptian industry ? particularly steel, iron and concrete factories.
But the most dramatic symbol of the Egyptian-Soviet alliance was the project to built the Aswan High Dam. After the United States rejected funding for the project, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal ? in a snub to its owners, Britain and France ? and in 1958 signed a deal with Moscow to help finance the project.
In Aswan, a smiling Khrushchev and Nasser pressed a button that set off explosives, opening a channel to divert the Nile and allow an army of Russian and Egyptian construction workers to begin the next phase of building the dam.
Military ties grew tighter after Egypt's shattering defeat in the 1967 war with Israel. Egypt bought arms from the Soviet Union to rebuild its destroyed military, and admitted some 15,000 Soviet troops and military advisers. Soviet pilots even flew in Egyptian uniforms in confrontations with the Israeli air force over the Israeli-held Sinai.
But the end of the Soviet-Egyptian bond came under Nasser's successor, Anwar Sadat. In a surprise move, Sadat ordered the Soviets out of the country in 1972 ? in part to free his hands to launch his assault on Israeli troops in the Sinai the next year, but more importantly to signal to Washington that he wanted to switch camps.
Sadat sealed Egypt's ties with the United States with his 1979 Camp David peace treaty with Israel. Now Egypt is the second-biggest recipient of U.S. aid ? some $2 billion a year, second only to Israel.
Putin's meeting Tuesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ? who studied at a Moscow military academy as a rising officer in the Egyptian air force ? is an effort to bring Russia back into the Mideast, particularly in the Israeli-Arab peace process.
It comes as U.S.-Egyptian ties have seen some friction, particularly over Washington's pressure for democratic reform. On that point, Mubarak got a sympathetic ear from Putin, whom the United States accuses of abusing power.
"Democracy cannot be exported from one country to another," Putin said at a news conference alongside Mubarak. When that happens, Putin said, "it becomes an instrument" to interfere in the internal affairs of another state.
The two sides talked of selling Russian trucks and anti-aircraft systems to Egypt, although no deal was announced. Trade is growing between Russia and Egypt, having doubled to $833.8 million in 2004.
And there was a nod to the days of old. Mubarak announced that a street in the southern city of Aswan would be named after Nicolai Malishev, the Soviet designer of the High Dam. "It was a real pleasure for me, a rather unexpected one, but a real pleasure," Putin said of the announcement.
Source
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