Egypt, under the leadership of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, is becoming quite adept at playing pyramid games across the Middle East and North Africa. Allegorically speaking, Cairo inducing two or more competing governments to invest in the same real estate underpins el-Sisi’s core strategy to play allies off one another.

Geostrategically, Egypt’s pyramid game has long engulfed the opposing interests of Russia and the United States. For example, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, el-Sisi is continuing his efforts to balance and deepen economic and military ties with Washington and Moscow.