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Defiant Russia Fears Losing 'Last Arab Ally' in Syria
[An Nahar] Fearing the loss of its last Arab ally and seeking to reassert its global clout, Russia is defiantly refusing to budge in a high-stakes diplomatic standoff with the West over the crisis in Syria.Russia, a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member, has exasperated the West by insisting it will not back a new resolution calling on  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Trampler of Homs... to step down despite the escalation of violence between the regime and the opposition. Moscow retains close ties with Assad's secular regime that go back to the Soviet alliance with his father Hafez al-Assad, and Syria remains a major buyer of Russian arms as well as hosting a strategic Russian naval base. The Kremlin watched the Arab Spring uprisings with anxiety as its ally Muammar Qadaffy ...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse... was ousted after the air campaign in Libya and the toppling of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... opened the way for increased Islamist influence. "Russia and Syria have historic ties going back to the Tsars and the Soviet Union. Today Syria is Russia's sole ally in the Middle East," said Boris Dolgov of the Center of Arab Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences. "If Russia were to give up Syria like Libya then it would terminally ruin our prestige," he said. Two decades after the Soviet Union's fall and just months ahead of Vladimir Putin  ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...'s expected return to the Kremlin, Moscow also wants to issue a firm reminder to the West that it is a global power whose position cannot be ignored. "First, unilateral sanctions are imposed without consulting Russia and then they go to the Security Council seeking our support," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency in an interview. "Of course, we cannot support such an approach." The extent of Russia's continued support for Assad was shown in January when a Saint Vincent-flagged cargo ship, the Chariot, docked in Syria after a brief stopover in Cyprus, reportedly carrying a supply of Russian arms. While never officially confirming this delivery, Russia has openly stated it has every right to ship arms to the Syrian regime in contracts that provide a crucial income source for its weapons industry. The general director of the Russia's Tactical Missiles Cooperation (TRV) Boris Obnosov told the RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday that Moscow had delivered two years ago to Syria an order for Kh-31 air-to-surface weapons. He revealed that TRV's losses from broken contracts due to the change of regime in Libya in 2011 amounted to 600 million euros ($790 million). Russia in October vetoed an earlier Western-backed draft resolution on Syria along with its diplomatic ally China, which is usually happy to follow Moscow's defiance while being far less talkative in public. Moscow was incensed that its abstention in March 2011 on the resolution that allowed the air campaign in Libya eventually led to the ousting of Qadaffy and appears determined not to allow the same scenario in Syria. "We cannot agree with the use of the 'Libyan model' as a basis for solving internal disputes," said Gatilov. Gatilov made clear that Russia would only support a resolution which condemned the violence "from whichever side", called for "objective dialogue" and ruled out the imposition of both military intervention and sanctions. Georgy Kunadze, a former deputy foreign minister and now of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, said that Russia's intransigence was allowing bloodletting to continue by preventing the adoption of a tough resolution. "There are times when a state has to stand and protect its own interests, but I'm not sure that's the case here," he told Agence La Belle France Presse. In a bid to position itself as mediator rather than recalcitrant obstacle, Russia on Monday unexpectedly announced that it had invited representatives of the Syrian regime and the opposition to talks in Moscow. But the opposition rapidly said it had no interest in the idea until Assad stepped down. "Talks were a nice but hardly realistic idea. It seems like Russia finally will lose its last ally in the region," said daily Vedomosti. Posted by: Fred 2012-02-01 |
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