As an American in Saudi Arabia, I was surprised how much Saudis like Russians. What do Russians think of Saudi people?

For some reason, I find Russia and Saudi Arabia interesting. I’ve asked a lot of my Saudi friends about Russia, and here’s what I’ve got:

Saudi media mostly reports on the war in a neutral way, but they don’t touch on Russia’s internal affairs at all.

Politically, Saudi Arabia’s relationship with Russia has improved a lot under MBS. Saudi offered to mediate the war in 2022 and recently hosted negotiations.

What surprised me the most is how much Saudis admire Russia much more than they do the US, even though we’re allies. A lot of them see Putin as this strong masculine leader and think of Russia as a Christian Orthodox, which they respect. My Saudi coworker once said, “At least Christians believe in God” I told him that Russia is actually a secular country, but they still like to think of it as a Christian.

And when they traveled to Russia. They all came back saying the security there is way better than in Europe, no snatching bags/phones. They were surprised by how nice and helpful Russians were, like translating stuff for them without even being asked.

One of my friends said a Russian woman helped her with skating, which she didn’t expect. Another got lost in the Moscow metro, and some random guy noticed she was a lost tourist and walked her to her station. Now, she swears Russians are the most polite people on earth. When they asked people to take photos of them, Russians didn’t just snap one quick shot and hand the phone back they took multiple pictures from different angles making sure they got a good one.

Now I'm curious...

Do you feel that your country is as socially conservative as Arabs see it?

Do you feel any sense of warmth or respect toward Saudis?