Soviet penetration of the Middle East is said to have begun with a 1955 arms deal between Czechoslovakia and Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Notes on verification
Well-documented historical event corroborated by Carnegie Endowment, Wikipedia, and historical archives; widely accepted by historians as the starting point of Soviet involvement in the Middle East via a Czechoslovak intermediary arms deal with Nasser's Egypt.
Sources
- (W)Archives: CIA and the “Arab Mind” - War on the Rocks (warontherocks.com)
- https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/09/egypt-russia-great-power (carnegieendowment.org)
- https://israeled.org/egypt-announces-czech-arms-deal/ (israeled.org)