Across the Middle East are now stepping on their toes, trying not to make a sound.
After all, when Putin roars - it's better to go into holes and burrows until the rage passes.
An exception is Syria, a country itself occupied by the Russians, which was quick to express support for Moscow.
Syria is relevant to our case, because Russia's involvement in it was Putin's first significant force move, on his way to restoring to his country the status of a leading world power.
Indeed, in our region we are accustomed to sights and sounds coming from Ukraine, for similar and even more difficult sights we all saw in Syria less than a decade ago, when the Russian Air Force was activated in full force against "terrorist rebels" and left behind sword cities.
So the world was a little less upset, because this is Syria and not the heart of Europe, but the lesson is the same.
No one rose up against the Russians to arrest them then.
And this is the important thing for the countries in the region, who are asking themselves - what will happen if Russia decides to "return" to Libya or Iraq, which were allies in the past?
And what if Iran carries out its threats and "comes to the aid" of the Shiites in Bahrain, or attacks the Emirates or Qatar?
Even then, will the Americans be content with economic sanctions and do nothing?
The Middle East understands better and also identifies with the Russian mentality, of being willing to make sacrifices for a lofty national goal, even at a painful economic cost.
In the US fuel prices are changing the national mood, so, in President Biden's speech last week he tried, alongside threats against Russia, to reassure the concerned American public, thereby revealing not only weakness and vulnerability but also a typical Western perspective, which sees it all in terms It did not work in the Middle East in the Arab Spring, where the residents chose Islamic movements, or alternatively, in the return of the dictators, over the standard of living, freedom and liberty; it also did not work in Iran, where sanctions did not stop the ayatollahs; Will not work in Russia.
Arab public opinion is not sympathetic to the Americans and the West.
But on the other hand - there is also no great love for Russia.
But the Russians are afraid, and that's the important thing.
For despite the "carpet voices" that everyone makes - by the way, also in Israel - Kiev is here, not only because of the geographical proximity to the scene of the conflict, but because the Middle East has always been, and still is, part of the arena of inter-bloc struggle.
And on the fringes of the Arab world, Iran was quick to condemn the West and blamed it for the crisis, but even it refrained from expressing support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
After all, the Russians, or the Americans, may invade it as well.
Turkey, on the other hand, joined the Western camp, and condemned the impending invasion to make it a neighbor to the Russians not only from the south, with Syria under their control, but also north of the shores of the Black Sea, which had returned to being a Russian sea.
Years of talking here about a new Middle East.
It is very possible that in the shadow of the new world order, which will be established following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and in the shadow of the division of booty and assets and the marking of borders between West and East, just as happened after World War II - the political map in the region will change.
The division then will not be between Sunnis and Shiites, but between American and Russian protectorates.
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