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| Volume XIV, Winter 2007, Number 4 |
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ABSTRACT
Russia and Algeria: Partners or Competitors?
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| Mark N. Katz |
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Dr. Katz is professor of government and politics at George Mason University.
Russian-Algerian relations had been relatively subdued before 2006. In that year, however,their ties expanded markedly. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Algeria in March 2006. At that time, major agreements on Russian arms sales to Algeria as well as a settlement of Algeria's debt to Russia were announced. Further, Gazprom and the Algerian state gas company, Sonatrach, signed a memorandum of understanding in August 2006 that has exacerbated European fears that Russia and Algeria (two of the three principal EU gas suppliers) will collude to raise the price of gas. Yet, while the improvement in Russian-Algerian ties has been dramatic, there appear to be limits on the extent to which they can collaborate, especially in the natural-gas sphere, where their interests seem to be more competitive than cooperative.
Soviet-Algerian relations had been close during the 1970s and 1980s, when Moscow was the main arms supplier to Algeria. The Russian press estimates that Moscow supplied $11 billion in military equipment to Algeria between 1962 and 1989, equal to 70-80 percent of Algeria's inventory. These weapons were paid for primarily through $11 billion in loans that the USSR extended to Algeria. During the 1990s, however, Russian-Algerian cooperation ceased as both governments wrestled with serious internal problems. Although Algeria paid down much of its Russian debt (in goods), it stopped making payments to Moscow in 1998 (even though it continued making payments to its other creditors). Shortly after Putin became president, Nezavisimaya gazeta noted unhappily that Algeria had joined NATO's "Mediterranean Dialogue," along with Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania.
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