As Obama continues to dither and turn his back on an ally, Russia markedly advances its interests in Egypt.

By Rob Janicki

While President Obama does nothing about ISIS in Syria and Iraq, Russian President Vladimir Putin is busy resurrecting its long ago former relationship with Egypt.

While Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi seeks out terrorists on the Sinai Peninsula and Muslim Brotherhood members throughout Egypt, Russians are meeting with members of the Egyptian government to establish economic initiatives beneficial to both countries.

[...] President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with a delegation of 300 Russian businessmen headed by Russian Minister for Industry and Trade Denis Manturov at the presidential palace in Cairo, the Cairo Post reported on Tuesday.

The delegation is on a two day visit meant to advance prior agreements reached by Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin in February when they agreed to establish a Russian industrial zone at the New Suez Canal.

“Our talks will focus on developing railway trains....

We are also interested in developing an iron and steel factory in Egypt,” said Manturov on Monday during a meeting of the Egyptian-Russian Business Forum. [...]

Apparently this is not enough to even get President Obama's attention, since his hand picked successor to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, has been imprisoned.  Muhammad Morsi, closely aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, has been sentenced to death, a rather harsh sentence, but necessary for the al-Sisi government to also outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in Egypt.

What is certain to get the attention to our allies, and those outside the Obama administration, is the fact that Egypt is buying armaments from Russia, just like the old days before the fall of the Soviet Union.

[...] Russia agreed to deliver 46 MiG-29 jets to Egypt in a deal expected to be worth as much as $2 billion, the largest MiG order since the fall of the Soviet Union, The Moscow Times reported on Monday, quoting a report in the country’s Vedomosti daily. [...]

This is a serious air craft purchase for Egypt.  Meanwhile, the United States military aircraft industry has been shutout and could have used this sale to Egypt to bolster its program development for American military aircraft. This just exemplifies another opportunity lost by the Obama administration as it continues its foolhardy policy of trying to make nice with our enemies, while turning a cold shoulder to our allies.