Several economic reports stated that the leadership of Saudi Arabia has miscalculated several political, economic, and military situations that led to heavy losses and negative effects on the Kingdom in various aspects. This included the oil price war, and increased production as a reaction to the failure of the OPEC agreement, as Riyadh wanted to bring more production cuts, to support the policy of increasing prices, and this was the first mistake of the Kingdom’s leadership.
The second mistake was thinking that increasing production and flooding the market with oil would harm Russia, and force it to return to the negotiating table but this also went wrong.
Mustafa Abdel Salam, a specialist in economic affairs, said: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia did go into the oil war with Russia for its own interest or the interest of its people, but rather fought on behalf of former US President Donald Trump, who instructed Saudi Arabia’s leadership to cause harm to Russia’s interests, and that war was of a high cost both politically and economically.
Russia’s economy is different from the economy of the Kingdom, as it is not completely dependent on oil, as it enjoys great political and economic influence, while Saudi Arabia’s influence was declining, thanks to the unwise decisions of MBS.
The Kingdom’s leadership tried to break Russia’s bones, but it did not think about the difference in power between a system completely dependent on oil and a system based on a diversified economy. The Kingdom also neglected Russia’s great political influence at a time when Saudi Arabia’s political influence has declined thanks to the reckless policies pursued by the Saudi Crown Prince. Mohammed bin Salman.
The Coronavirus pandemic, and the increasingly negative economic repercussions on countries, showed that Saudi Arabia had miscalculated its decisions in solving the problem of the decline in oil prices, despite its supposedly long experience in the oil markets, but the crisis has proven that the decisions of Saudi Arabia is never subject study, science, and research, but rather it is subject to the whims of the king or his son, regardless of the country and the people’s interests.
The decline in oil and the unwise decisions have created unprecedented pressure on the Kingdom’s economy and increased its budget deficit, which made the government seek to solve this crisis from the money of the people, instead of seeking to open new horizons in the economy to recover its losses. The economic pressures heavily affected citizens as the government imposed more taxes on them, increased prices, and did not implement any of MBS’s projects, despite spending billions on it.
