Inspired by a conversation with /u/budget-song2618

Disclaimer; This is not the view point of the entire region. This is a view point of a portion of people in the region.

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So the author makes some interesting points, especially regarding the historical aspects and not leaving the problem up to future generations to solve, as well as the identification of perceptions globally.

This in particular hit the mark;

A multipolar world has finally become a reality – the operation in Ukraine is not capable of rallying anyone but the West against Russia. Because the rest of the world sees and understands perfectly well – this is a conflict between Russia and the West, this is a response to the geopolitical expansion of the Atlanticists, this is Russia’s return of its historical space and its place in the world.

There's definitely truth in this. To explain I'll have to digress for a bit. That's not factoring in the historical aspects in which in a region like MENA for example, Russia and the USSR are still looked upon favorably today, due to their backing of local governments that at the time had a staunchly nationalist, anti-imperialist agenda (at least on paper). The decline of the USSR definitely hurt those countries and resulted in most of them succumbing to pressure to accept western hegemony as a result.

To use Egypt as an example, Egypt during the days of Nasser was mostly under the Russian sphere of influence, having just overthrown the British backed monarchy, almost immediately after the 1952 revolution, Egypt was invaded by the UK, France, and Israel.

The Revolution was faced with immediate threats from Western imperial powers, particularly the United Kingdom, which had occupied Egypt since 1882, and France, both of whom were wary of rising nationalist sentiment in territories under their control throughout Africa, and the Arab World. The ongoing state of war with the State of Israel also posed a serious challenge, as the Free Officers increased Egypt's already strong support of the Palestinians. These two issues converged in the fifth year of the Revolution when Egypt was invaded by the United Kingdom, France, and the State of Israel in the Suez Crisis of 1956 (known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression). Despite enormous military losses, the war was seen as a political victory for Egypt, especially as it left the Suez Canal in uncontested Egyptian control for the first time since 1875, erasing what was seen as a mark of national humiliation. This strengthened the appeal of the revolution in other Arab countries.

When Sadat took over, in 1970 he did a few things;

• Released Islamists that Nasser had imprisoned, a large number of which were suspected to be or actually were backed by the UK.

• Obtained Islamist support for "revising" the constitution to remove many checks and balances, by changing a single word in the Egyptian constitution ("Islamic jurisprudence is one of the main sources of legislation", to "Islamic jurisprudence is THE main source of legislation") (Don't have an English source for this one sorry).

• Finally, Moved Egypt to the Western Sphere of influence, in return for peace with Israel, the return of Sinai to Egypt (Which Israel was only able to take in the first place due to Western support), as well as providing the Egyptian military with weapons (which they previously got from USSR)

And well, the rest is history, but the last is the key point.

Keeping in mind in Egyptian modern history, no president was as beloved (not that any of them were angels) as Nasser (except among the "rich blood" families that lost their wealth thanks to wholesale agrarian reform), and no president as reviled as Mubarak, who reaped all the benefits of what Sadat sowed before he was assassinated, Which Mubarak was actually suspected of being in on, a "conspiracy theory" that's been given more legitimacy later on, for example (bolded for emphasis);

Three decades later, in his first interview with a U.S. television news organization since his release, El Zomor was unapologetic about being a part of the killing of Sadat.

“Our role was related to assisting but not decision-making,” El Zomor recalled in his interview with CNN. “All that we did, our role, is that we had ammunition that we sent” to the assassins.

“The idea was just to change and provide an alternative leader who could save Egypt from a crisis of the political dead-end we lived in then,” El Zomor explained. “I intended complete change, not just the murder of Sadat.”

He cheered the January 25 revolution that ousted Mubarak on February 11 and felt “jealous” that his own religious revolution did not succeed. He also claimed that Al Gamaa al-Islamiyya has renounced its military arm because there was “no need to fight the oppression of the former Mubarak regime.”

The fall of regimes almost always comes with the unveiling of secret documents and conspiracy theories.

Sadat’s assassination was recently revisited by his daughter, Roqaya al-Sadat, a month after Mubarak was toppled. She filed a case in March at the general prosecutor’s office claiming new evidence had emerged implicating Mubarak, who was Sadat’s vice president.

“The lead gunman’s machine gun jammed and he reached in the vehicle for another gun,” said Talaat El Sadat. He demands an explanation to how guns without their safety pins were smuggled in.

“Where was my uncle’s elite security all this time?”

“The answer (to all of this) is Hosni Mubarak. He benefits the most from the killing, assisted by the Americans and the Israelis,” El Sadat said.

And you'll find many a parallel to other countries in the region (Colonialism, Coups, Funding Islamist groups...etc.), Hell even Russia's backing of Syria's Assad (Vs Western backing of Islamists) is looked upon favorably for the most part.

Now back to actually addressing the piece itself, a large portion of the global south, despite the threat of war, are absolutely yearning for a multi-polar world and the end of Western dominance, and it's happening very slowly thanks to China's rise.

To use Egypt as an example again, not only are there open discussions about the application of the "Chinese Model" to Egypt considering decades of what was effectively neoliberal economic rule not only failed to address the issue, but the IMF loans Egypt were forced to take imposed austerity measures that are naturally decimating the poor and middle class (and even significant enough to fuck over all but the Egyptian 1%) , but Chinese loans are deemed to have far preferable conditions compared to "Western loans".

In addition to the openly stated by an Egyptian official (and I'm paraphrasing/translating cause I don't have the source handy atm); "The Chinese are here and helping us without dictating", similar to another statement made (again paraphrasing cause I don't have the source handy atm) "When the Chinese come, we get a hospital, when the West comes, we get a lecture", There's this;

Speaking about the Western perception of Chinese commercial activity in countries such as Egypt el-Dahshan stated: “A lot of established [Western] partners aren’t happy to see someone else competing with them in countries they consider to be their traditional homes.”

[snip]

All business

One area where there is little dispute between Beijing and Cairo is the topic of weighing into each other’s domestic politics.

“China’s approach in dealing with Egyptian affairs has its uniqueness due to its non-interference policy,” Wang told Al Jazeera.

A key issue not being discussed in the Chinese-Egyptian relationship is the persecution of Uighurs, the Turkic ethnic group and Muslim community in China’s northwest Xinjiang province.

[snip]

Greer puts the situation directly: “For Egypt and China human rights isn’t on the agenda. Business is the higher topic.”

This is relevant, especially considering the propaganda against the Chinese FDI, as stated quite well by /u/spookyjohnathan with this comment.

The thing is that China overwhelmingly does give help for free. Even Western sources have admitted as much repeatedly.

The Chinese "Dept Trap" is a Myth

The Chinese Debt Trap Is a Myth

Debunking the Myth of "Dept-Trap Diplomacy"

Debunking the myth of China’s “debt- trap diplomacy”

I didn't repeat myself. This is just such a common trope at this point that Western sources are repeating themselves. It's been pretty much widely recognized as US State Department propaganda for years now.

China wants 2 things, neither of which are imperialistic;

First, they want to help the developing world develop so that they can be better trading partners with China. China benefits, but not at the expense of the developing world.

Second, they want to develop mutually beneficial relationships so that the world isn't dependent on China's enemies, namely the US, so that the US can't use those countries' dependence to sway them against China. In other words, China wants to be an indispensable part of the world economy, so that no one can attack it with impunity.

China wants to be the golden goose, not the bossy gander.

I also highly recommend reading /u/scarci 's response to the article I posted (as well as the article itself)

So why do I mention all this? Because people's memories aren't short. In a region like MENA, not only is the situation in Palestine a lighting rod for them, not only is Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya...etc. a sore point, but memories aren't short and there are people alive that remember western invasion and living under western occupation, remember how they were treated by westerners...etc. and remember how "USSR/Russia stood by them" (For geopolitical purposes of course). The experiences that "Informs their opinion" are very different compared to westerners.

The people to this day feel the impacts of western physical and economic colonization.

And why did I bring China into this? Because when looking at Russia, they're not looking at Russia alone, but at Russia + China, both of which for varying reasons (mainly Western behavior) are viewed more preferably than the west in many regions.

It's one of the reasons I literally spit my coffee laughing when I saw someone had posted a piece "warning" about Russian Disinformation in Arabic on an Arab sub (or was it MENA twitter, I forget), because people in the region are already conditioned to be skeptical of anything the west says (and their own govs for that matter), and not because of anything Russia has done, but because the West has directly and repeatedly lied about MENA and MENA nations for 7+ decades, in a bid to bomb the shit out of them and steal their resources, the west still directly backs RW tyrants and regimes for geo political purposes (including in MENA) so why in the world would they believe the West now?

Another very important key to the perception of folks in the MENA region countries that coincides with what the piece refers to, is the perception on the situation in Donetsk, Abkhazia and Luhansk, which is viewed in a radically different fashion among many in the region when compared to westerners;

Basically the way they see it, is that these are locals in their own homes, that had their government overthrown by the west, only to result in them being under constant attack for 8+ years with no one in the west paying attention (but they do in MENA).

Notice comparisons to a key MENA issue? Yup, they do view those places in a similar fashion to Palestine (More specifically Gaza), meaning to them Russia is the liberator not the oppressor.

This viewpoint is further reinforced when you see stuff like Zelensky openly dreaming of Ukraine becoming 'big Israel' .

It's further reinforced when they see that Ukraine removed Russian as an official language, despite it being the dominant language in the east, similar to what Israel did with Arabic that was an official language for over 70 years.

It's further reinforced when they see reports of racism in Ukraine, that are quickly dismissed by western news outlets.

It's further reinforced when they see western support and minimization of Nazis and RW elements, something they generally pay the price for and don't have the luxury to minimize or ignore. To quote a subset of that last link (and the link in that link as well):

Furthermore, we already have quite a large number of case studies in which the US and the west backed extremist right wing elements for geo-political goals, to the detriment of the natives, only for it to bite both the natives and the West in the ass later down the line. One of the most recent being Bolivia and it's Western backed Religio-fascist RW coup (Not figuratively a Religio-fascist RW coup mind you, but Literally a Religio-fascist RW coup).

Entire regions are forced to deal with and clean up the mess that the US and the West make all the time, often forced into making "Lesser Evil" choices that are more shitty than anything born and bred Americans have [ever] had to deal with. You have the luxury of ignoring that because you haven't had to live with the consequences or know someone that has. I don't have that luxury.

Not only that, but they see Russia (which culturally is closer to MENA culture. Especially among Coptic Christians) as "the underdog standing up to the bully", the same "bully" that's been bullying them and supporting their bullies for decades.

For example, here's Biden in 1986 saying "were there not an israel the united states would have to invent an Israel to protect its interests in the region". A clip not only widely shared in MENA twitter, but also covered in many pieces such as this one (if you want to see more results, search for "بايدن لو لم تكن هناك إسرائيل كان على الولايات المتحدة أن تخترع إسرائيل لحماية مصالحها في المنطقة"), also as this piece clearly states:

Forget what was said in the election campaign about freedom, democracy and human rights. They are not given any weight in US politics; they are nothing but a pretty veneer to plaster over America's ugly colonial face, which was exposed so publicly by Trump. However, we Arabs are a people who hate to see the truth in front of our eyes, and we run away from it, preferring instead to live in a world full of illusions.

[snip]

The Arab people should not pin their hopes on Biden. No one will give us freedom; we must take it back from those who seized it, as we did during the Arab Spring revolutions. It's a long walk to freedom and the way is full of obstacles, requiring a lot of sacrifice.

Israel is a Western colonial project imposed on the Arab world. It is there to make it easier for the West to dominate the people and their lands so that they put Western interests above all else.

"It's about time we stop apologising for our support for Israel," Joe Biden told the US Senate in 1986. "There's no apology to be made. It is the best $3 billion investment we make. If there weren't an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region."

Also recall that "Arab Socialism" was a big trend (and one of the reasons Nasser was so popular in Egypt despite his many MANY missteps/mistakes and remains so to this day and many curse Sadat for "the opening" of the economy to neolib capitalism), and joining the "western" sphere of influence robbed them from that ideology (Which remains fairly popular in MENA to this day).

And remember, these are people that have lived under similar governments to the Kremlin for decades. The idea of a despot doesn't scare them. The idea of a single party system doesn't scare them. The idea of resource scarcity or a bad economy doesn't scare them. and why would it when they've already experienced it multiple times?

Their lived experience is wildly different and that's what informs their viewpoints, which is one of the reasons you'll find many in the MENA-American community for example laughing and ridiculing how US liberals hyperventilate over 1/6, when many have lived through (or know someone who has like an older family member) through actual Western backed coups, it's why they saw Drumpf as nothing more than business as usual with a different (more blunt) face.