To hear the Biden administration tell it, the Saudis are completely irrational actors who will happily throw the US and Europe under the bus just to help Russia, even though that offers far less economic benefit to them.
But that’s not what’s going on here. Instead, this is Saudi Arabia pulling out the big guns to get the kind of American leadership they want: one which will do business with them regardless of pesky little points like human rights and legality and will even do hidden, illegal business as well. In other words, Republicans.
I explore this in my latest piece at Medium.