Examining The Position of Islam and Muslims in Russia's Middle East Policy after the Arab Revolutions

 Although the Russian Federation is rarely known as a country with an Islamic identity, Islam has always been the second largest religion in this land. Despite different estimates of the nubjmber of Muslims in Russia, according to some statistics, this country has a population of about 25 million Muslims of various ethnic races. According to these data, it can be assessed that Russia has the largest Muslim minority population in the whole of Europe. Russian leaders and politicians repeatedly emphasize the importance of Islam as an integral part of the country's cultural and social structure. The increasing importance of Islam in Russia has affected the political destiny of this country in three dimensions: demographic balance, regional and international position, and the transformation of national identity. Therefore, the main goal of the current research is to investigate the role and position of Islam and Muslims in Russia (as the inheritor of the Soviet communist system) in Moscow's foreign policy, and its central question is what is the position of Islam and Muslims in Russia's Middle East policy after the Arab revolutions until now. Is.

 This article has been written in a descriptive-analytical method using documentary-library sources.

 The findings of the research indicate that, considering the role played by Islam and Muslims in the process of forming Russia's identity, domestic relations and international interactions, as well as the impact of the Islamic factor on the developments and prospects of Russia's security issues, the country's foreign policy In the period after the Arab revolutions, until now, it has been based on the fight against religious fundamentalism, avoiding entering the Shia-Sunni religious divide and trying to improve the image of Russia among the Sunni Islamic communities in the Middle East region.

 The present article has come to the conclusion that after the Arab revolutions, Russia, realizing the threat of Islamic fundamentalism and its spread in its Muslim republics from the Sunni Islamic countries, has adopted a balanced policy towards the Islamic countries of the Middle East. . Therefore, it is expected that the role of Islam in Russia's foreign policy will increase and Russian statesmen will be more willing to interact constructively with the Islamic countries of the Middle East. The increasing tendency of Russian citizens towards Islam affects the internal situation of Russia and its foreign policy options in the medium and long term.