By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2024-07-01

ADEN -- As the Houthis continue to wreak havoc in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways, Russia has been enabling the group with an eye toward exploiting the situation for geopolitical and economic gain, experts said.

Moscow has forged closer ties with the Houthis amid its own war on Ukraine, as this has isolated it on the world stage and it needs new allies, Abaad Center for Strategic Studies director Abdul Salam Mohammed told Al-Fassel.

Russian political support for the Houthis includes the hosting of a high-level Houthi delegation in Moscow in January aimed at coordinating positions among the group, Iran and Russia.

Russia's relationship in the past "was with the then-ruling General People's Congress (GPC) and its president, Ali [Abdullah] Saleh," Mohammed noted. "However, the relationship started to decline following the Houthis' Sanaa coup."

The recent revival of ties stems from Russia's alliance with Iran.

Red Sea ambitions

Moscow has ambitions, via the Houthis, to gain a foothold on the Red Sea, a key oil shipping corridor, political analyst Faisal Ahmed told Al-Fassel.

Through its alliance with the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, Russia has access to Mediterranean Sea ports, he said.

"It is trying to return and oversee global oil transport lines in the Red Sea through Iran and the Houthis in Yemen, so as to influence global oil prices," he added.

Meanwhile, Russia also has ambitions to develop an alternate trade route that would enable trade to bypass the Suez Canal, economist Fares al-Najjar said.

"It is trying to develop the Northern Corridor as a strategic alternative to traditional routes through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal," he said, which would serve its own economic and geopolitical agenda.

Impact on Suez Canal

The Houthis' attacks in the Red Sea have had an enormous impact on Suez Canal revenues and cargo ship owners, al-Najjar said.

"The cost of shipping has increased as a result of a rise in insurance premiums as risk levels rose, causing insurance costs to surge by 20 to 30%," he said.

Increased insurance costs have discouraged many companies from using the Suez Canal, leading to an estimated 10% decrease in revenue since 2021.

Some shipping companies rerouted their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, a longer voyage reflected in the increased cost of shipping and the higher price of commodities worldwide.

In the Middle East, the impact of slowed Red Sea traffic has hit Egypt and Jordan particularly hard -- Egypt through a 40% reduction in Suez Canal revenues, and Jordan, which receives almost one-third of its imports and sends more than half of its exports through the port of Aqaba.