The past several days have been packed with activities starting with the visit of US Vice President Joseph Biden which began in Finland, continued to St Petersburg and Moscow before traveling on to Moldova. The VP's visit marked the highest ranking American ever to travel to Moldova.
Biden's Russia visit had been previously planned but the visit by Secretary Robert Gates was situational due to events in Libya. To clear the calendar for UN actions the previously scheduled meeting between President Medvedev and Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, was pushed forward several days and several other diplomatic meetings were either cancelled or rescheduled.
In a nutshell, all the frantic travel between the two capitals has been the result of a deal crafted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in which the USA will modify certain aspects of the planned antimissile defenses in Europe in exchange for Russia's permission (via the UN Security Council resolution) to coordinate a UN no-fly zone over Libya. Also, Russia will have the first position to go in and rebuild Libya when that help is needed. This will be a financial boon to Russia's "Haliburton" styled companies which happen to be under Kremlin control.
Despite all the calendar jockeying, President's Obama and Medvedev made time for a telephone conference regarding Libya today. But the most fun was the Deep Purple concert in Moscow on Tuesday night. Before the concert and just an hour after Secretary Gates had left the presidential residence, Deep Purple arrived at the Gorki compound for tea. The band was greeted by the sight of Medvedev's old reel-to-reel tape player blaring their songs. Medvedev has been a Deep Purple fan since his teen years and was presented with a pair of drumsticks. The bandmembers had also been his guests in 2008 at a pre-election party at which they played.
Mr Medvedev kept the calendared meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday (March 24) albeit at a later start time (6pm) given the events of the last several days. Because he would be meeting the Prince of Saudi Arabia today, the meeting with PM Netanyahu was conducted at the Russian presidential residence at Gorki and thereby accommodating the Saudi Prince at the Kremlin Senate Chamber the next day.
His Royal Highness Prince Saud Al-Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia as the Saudi Foreign Minister is these days the public face of the ailing and elderly King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. Russia had summoned the Prince to express the desire for close coordination of Saudi Arabia's and Russia's policies in the Middle East and North Africa in light of the major events taking place in these regions. Photos and more details are available at the
Mendeleyev Journal.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Presidential Aide Sergei Prikhodko were present and the Prince was asked to provide details on the recent events that have led to the Saudi decision to send military units to the Kingdom of Bahrain. Most of those troops are a combined force from the Saudi military and the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) joint armed forces. Prince Saud Al-Faisal explained that the decision was made in response to a request from Bahrain’s lawful government, and based on a collective security that binds the GCC members.
