Abu Dhabi (AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin was Tuesday in Abu Dhabi for a visit to be concluded by the signing of agreements for a total of more than a billion dollars, Russia, cold with the West, thus continuing to woo investors Arab.

The Russian leader traveled to the UAE after a visit to Saudi Arabia marked by the conclusion of an oil deal between Moscow and Ryad, crowned by twenty agreements and contracts involving investments for billions of dollars .

These visits come as relations between Russia and the West are at their lowest since the end of the Cold War, and the Russian economy has been hard hit since 2014 by European and American sanctions because of its role in the Ukrainian crisis. .

At Abu Dhabi airport, Mr. Putin was greeted with honors by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and his procession was accompanied, as at Ryad, by riders carrying Russian flags.

At the approach of the presidential palace procession, Emirati planes flew over the Abu Dhabi sky in a white-blue-red smoke plume - the colors of the Russian flag - and cannon shots then resonated.

In the streets of the megalopolis of the Gulf, which also flourished tricolor flags, road signs that normally provide advice to drivers have broadcast messages of welcome to Mr. Putin.

"Among the Gulf countries, the United Arab Emirates is a leader in terms of trade with Russia," Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov told reporters a few days before the visit. In 2018, these exchanges reached $ 1.7 billion (1.5 billion euros).

"The level of relations with the UAE is very advanced and they continue to improve," said Monday the Russian Minister of Economy, Maxime Orechkin, in front of journalists in Riyadh.

A dozen agreements worth more than $ 1.3 billion, particularly in the high-tech, health and energy fields, must be signed as part of this visit, according to the Sovereign Fund. Russian.

- Space cooperation -

"Russia and the United Arab Emirates have a lot to offer through technology exchange and investment," Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev said in a statement.

"We have partnerships not only on Earth, but also in space," he said, adding that "the potential for cooperation is truly unlimited".

Russia sent in space in late September the first emirati astronaut Hazzaa Al Mansouri, 35, returned to Earth in early October after a short stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and hosted as a hero in his homeland.

Among the Arab countries, only Saudi Arabia and Syria had already sent a man into space, respectively in 1985 and 1987.

Before conducting closed-door talks, Putin and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi briefly met with Hazzaa al-Mansouri and another Emirati astronaut, Sultan al-Nayadi.

"Russia as a space power has a mission to open the way to space to countries that would like to be space powers (...), who have the will and the money" necessary to achieve this goal Ryad, head of the Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos) Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters on Monday.

In addition to Mr Rogozin, Vladimir Putin is accompanied during his travels in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates by a large delegation of ministers and senior Russian officials, including the strong man of Chechnya, the Russian Caucasus republic for the most part. Muslim, Ramzan Kadyrov.

Renowned as an ultra-fervent defender of conservative Islam, the Chechen leader is accused by human rights NGOs of repressing opposition and persecuting homosexuals in his region.

Kadyrov, who met on Monday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, hailed a "historic visit" by Putin to Saudi Arabia in a message on the encrypted telegram messaging platform, saying "certain" that the ties of Russia will be strengthened at its end with "the whole Muslim world".

© 2019 AFP