 |
| Prince Bandar and President Putin last July 31 |
Saudi Arabia’s spymaster Prince Bandar bin Sultan
arrived in Moscow today for his second round of talks in four months with
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
News of his arrival in the Russian capital was broken
this afternoon by Khaled al-Matrafi, regional director of Saudi-owned TV news
channel Alarabiya.
Prince Bandar’s visit to the Kremlin comes less than
a month since Putin, a strong backer of Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad, called Saudi King Abdullah to discuss international efforts to
end the Syria crisis.
Russia last month
sharply criticized Saudi Arabia's decision to reject membership of the UN
Security Council over the body's failure to resolve the Syria war, which has
been fought for over two-and-a-half years.
The
most significant recent contact between Moscow and Riyadh was a meeting between
Putin and Prince Bandar last July 31.
I
assume the new round of Putin-Bandar talks opens the bazaar between the pair
over the upcoming Geneva-2 peace conference slated for January 22.
