One major reason Saudi Arabia is especially flush with cash — enough to buy entire sports leagues — is that the Saudi government is taking advantage of the war in Ukraine to fleece the West. Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Riyadh has been using its power over energy markets to keep oil prices artificially high, with the costs paid by consumers in already struggling economies in the United States and Europe. To make even more money, Riyadh buys cheaper oil from Russia for its domestic use, freeing up more of its own for export at sky-high margins. This, in turn, gives Russian President Vladimir Putin funds to continue waging war and withstand Western sanctions. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, is then spending some of these war profits to buy influence in the West to neuter any opposition to his anti-Western strategy.
“The war in Ukraine has precipitated a massive wealth transfer, hundreds of billions of dollars, from consumers in democratic countries to oil-producing states, especially Saudi Arabia,” said former congressman and State Department official Tom Malinowski. “Do they plan to use any of this windfall to help us support and reconstruct Ukraine, or will they waste all of it on vanity cities in the desert and political influence operations in the United States? This should matter greatly to us.”
The war in Ukraine has been a huge bonanza for the Saudis. Since Russia invaded, OPEC under Saudi leadership has repeatedly cut production, defying U.S. requests and jacking up the prices even more. Saudi state oil company Aramco made a record $161.1 billion in profit last year, up 47 percent from 2021. Meanwhile, Riyadh has given Ukraine a measly $400 million in humanitarian aid.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, a close friend of MBS and the board chairman of Aramco, is set to become the boss of the newly merged for-profit golf enterprise that will combine the PGA Tour with the Saudi-funded LIV Tour and the DP World Tour. He also is the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sole funder of the new company. You don’t need a map to follow the money here.
To be sure, the Saudis were already rich, and they have a long history of buying off Westerners through lobbying, sports purchases, media investments and other influence plays. The $2 billion the PIF reportedly invested in Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s private equity firm cannot be seen as anything but direct interference in U.S. politics through the instrument of Trump and his family.
The PGA Tour deal represents an escalation of this strategy. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told me the Saudis have already been using golf for U.S. political interference. Now, he said, he expects them to greatly expand that effort. It’s likely no accident that Trump perfectly predicted the golf merger last year. He stands to financially benefit from it, as well, through preferential terms for hosting events at his own organization’s golf clubs.
“The Saudis have clearly been using LIV to funnel cash to the likely Republican nominee for president as a way to continue to keep him on their good side,” Murphy told me. “Now, will they be able to wash that money through the PGA? Will the PGA become the means by which a foreign government puts money in the pocket of American political figures?”
Murphy is calling for scrutiny of the merger on national security grounds. “There are enormous consequences that come with a foreign dictatorship, often with national security interests totally contrary to American interests, owning a major American sport,” he said. Lawmakers are calling on federal regulators to intervene in the deal, and congressional investigations are also on the table.
The Biden White House surely knows that Saudi Arabia is funding the president’s opponents, which might partially explain (along with geopolitical factors) the president’s complete reversal of his campaign promise to treat MBS as a “pariah.” But the administration should also realize that the Saudis are interfering in U.S. politics to support people who, if elected, would stop U.S. support for Ukraine.
When Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Saudi Arabia for three days last week, including a meeting with MBS, the top agenda items were Israeli-Arab relations, the fight against the Islamic State, nuclear power deals and arms sales. There’s no indication that Ukraine was a priority in the meetings or that the PGA Tour came up at all.
The Saudi golf grab must be understood not just as a human rights or sportswashing story. It’s key to Saudi Arabia’s attempts to purchase political cover as it shifts its foreign policy away from the West and toward Russia, China and Iran. But don’t be fooled. MBS has clearly chosen a side in the struggle between democracies and autocracies — and it is not with the United States or Ukraine.
The very least the Saudi regime could do is to take some of its ill-gotten Ukraine war gains and use them to help Ukraine, above all through rebuilding of its infrastructure and economy. Buying the PGA Tour is a brazen move, but it won’t fix Saudi Arabia’s image or obscure the fact that MBS and his cronies have abused Ukraine’s suffering to line their pockets.
