Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Vladimir Putin backs Egypt's Sisi's 'run' for Egyptian presidency

giochi di potere e minacce attorno all'Egitto...Grande Gioco in grande 
stile...
 
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10636815/Vladimir-Putin-backs-Egypts-Sisis-run-for-Egyptian-presidency.html
 
 
Vladimir Putin backs Egypt's Sisi's 'run' for Egyptian presidency
Russian president endorses army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's undeclared 
bid to head Egypt as the two leaders negotiate a massive Moscow weapons deal
 
By Richard Spencer, Cairo 5:01PM GMT 13 Feb 2014
 
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has made a startling intervention in 
Egypt’s political turmoil by backing its defence minister for the 
presidency, before an election has even been declared.
Whether the minister, the newly promoted Field Marshal Abdulfattah 
el-Sisi, will stand for president in elections scheduled for later this 
year is the biggest talking point in Egyptian politics, with elements of 
a personality cult already forming around him.
His aides have consistently denied reports that he has already made a 
decision, but Mr Putin chose to ignore that while welcoming him on a 
visit to Moscow.
“I know that you have made a decision to run for president,” Mr Putin 
said. “That’s a very responsible decision: to undertake such a mission 
for the fate of the Egyptian people. On my own part, and on behalf of 
the Russian people, I wish you success.”
Field Marshal Sisi’s visit to Russia was already being watched closely 
for clues as to whether the two countries were seeking to renew a 
military and strategic alliance that was ended by the former President 
Anwar Sadat 40 years ago.
 
Since then, Egypt has been firmly in the American orbit, but criticism 
in Washington of the then General Sisi’s decision last July to oust the 
Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohammed Morsi, and of the subsequent 
shooting dead of hundreds of protesters, has enraged the military and 
its supporters.
Russia is keen to take at least superficial advantage of America’s 
current unpopularity, and well-placed leaks to Russian media have 
indicated the two sides are negotiating $2 billion (£1.2 billion) in 
arms sales, including the S-300 air defence system.
However, the deal has been discussed for some months now without any 
firm commitment, and would have to be paid for out of the billions of 
dollars currently being supplied to keep the Egyptian government solvent 
by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which both strongly backed 
Gen Sisi’s coup.
Saudi Arabia is currently furious with President Barack Obama for his 
failure to intervene more strongly against the Assad regime in Syria and 
his gradual rapprochement with Riyadh’s strategic foe, Iran.
However, whether that anger would extend to approving a real realignment 
of Egypt’s position with that of Russia, the closest ally of both Syria 
and Iran outside the Middle East, is another matter.
Nabil Fahmy, the Egyptian foreign minister, who is accompanying Field 
Marshal Sisi on his trip to Moscow, his first overseas since the coup, 
has insisted that Egypt is just “broadening” its diplomatic scope.
The Egyptian rapprochement with Russia does make clear the very 
differing approaches to the “Arab Spring” of Moscow and Washington. Mr 
Putin has all along seen it as a threat - both to the autocratic rule 
pursued by many key Russian allies and, increasingly, within Russia 
itself, and as an opportunity for the strengthening of militant Islamist 
movements.
America has preferred to see it as an awakening of democratic politics 
as a result of which moderate Islamism can be strengthened in the face 
of the militants. By attempting to crush the Muslim Brotherhood, Field 
Marshal Sisi has put himself firmly in the camp of Moscow - as well as 
of Riyadh and the Gulf Sunni states which have pursued similar if less 
bloody crackdowns against Islamist movements, including entirely 
peaceful ones.
“A stable situation in the whole of the Middle East largely depends on 
stability in Egypt,” Mr Putin also said. “I am convinced that you with 
your vast experience will be able to both mobilise your supporters and 
normalise relations with all sections of Egyptian society.”
Most Egyptians expect Field Marshal Sisi to stand for the presidency and 
win, bolstered by an unstoppable tide of support in the state-backed 
media and privately-owned television stations, and by street campaigns 
mounted by pro-military activists. These have also mobilised remnants of 
the Mubarak regime, who had previously languished in disgrace since the 
revolution of 2011.
However, it is unusual for a candidate to be so publicly backed by a 
foreign country, particularly when he has not even announced his 
candidature.
Mr Putin’s stance seemed also to contradict the official communique 
issued after the visit, which “condemned foreign interference in 
domestic affairs of any country", a regular diplomatic dig at American 
concern over human rights in other nations.

 Am.
 
dobbiamo ringraziare Obama per questo, ad ogni modo ci sono ancora 
speranze che non sia così...