final week satellite images revealed Russia’s military expansion in Syria,with deployments of troops, tanks and warplanes. Now western governments are scrambling to respond to the shift in power in the Middle EastRussian president Vladimir Putin’s dramatic deployment of soldiers, and weapons and aircraft to Syria is aimed at reshaping not just a civil war on the edge of the Mediterranean but Russia’s standing in the international community.
Moscow has been isolated for years by sanctions slapped on the country as punishment for its annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Doubling down on his support for the beleaguered Syrian regime,Putin sent a clear sign that there would be no solution to the bloody quagmire without Moscow.Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com