In a recent article, published on the website of the Selous Foundation for Public Policy Research (SFPPR), Dr. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz examined post-Soviet Russia’s support for Bashar al-Assad’s Arab national-socialist (Ba’athist) regime in Syria. Moscow is not the only actor playing its own geopolitical game in this civil-war-ravaged Arab state. As Dr. Chodakiewicz demonstrates, other powers-including the U.S., France, Turkey, Israel, and Iran-all have stakes in the future of the strategic Middle Eastern country. Putin’s Russia has a clear interest in buttressing a non-Islamist but anti-Western dictatorship which, like the Islamic Republic of Iran, fits into post-Soviet Russia’s neo-Cold-War alignment to counter American power throughout the world. At the same time, Dr. Chodakiewicz points out, the West should not be surprised if the Kremlin finds a convenient modus vivendi with a potential Islamist government in Damascus. Or with the United States.
To read Dr. Chodakiewicz’s analysis, please click here.