Every picture tells a story, or so it’s said, and the photo of a smirking Vladimir Putin shaking hands with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, at the opening game of the men’s football World Cup in Moscow in June 2018 carried a clear warning for the west.
The message, for those who cared to heed it: Saudi Arabia, nurtured by the British in the days of empire, defended by the US against Saddam Hussein and Iran, and forgiven its close connections to the 9/11 terror attacks, was no longer the dependent, biddable ally it once was. Prince Mohammed was making new friends.
