... the profound systemic crisis is yet to be found. Most countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia) have launched the needed socioeconomic reforms, albeit belatedly, but outcomes are difficult to predict. In other parts of the Arab world (Syria, Libya, Yemen), civil war has been the means of resolving questions of power. In these countries there is an inextricable tangle of ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ governments, numerous militias, terrorist groups, and foreign military contingents,...
Russia should not necessarily wait for the Europeans to join its rebuilding efforts
As the United States eyes
new sanctions
on Syria, Russia increasingly finds it needs to work out solutions that would nonetheless push forward the post-conflict reconstruction ... ... differences
in this area. While Russia sees Syrian reconstruction mainly in terms of rebuilding the damaged physical infrastructure, European Union states link the reconstruction efforts to political transition.
Meanwhile in Moscow there are two competing views ...
... security agenda of the Middle East is indisputable. No matter what we discuss — the Syrian settlement, state-building in Iraq, civil war in Yemen or political dynamics... ... than it is part of the solution. Of course, Iran’s friends and partners, including Russia, argue the opposite. All these disagreements notwithstanding, the broad international... ... “destabilizing” activities in the region and is in any case not prepared to establish any causal effect between these matters and the implementation of the JCPOA. However, Russia...
It is becoming increasingly more difficult for Moscow to retain its position as an honest, if not completely independent, broker
On February 14, the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran will meet in Sochi to discuss Syria and hold separate bilateral meetings. Recently, new developments have emerged that could prove dangerous if each state pursues its own hidden agenda. The three states depend on the Astana format for settling the Syrian issue.
By 2019, the Syrian ...
The main Russian event of 2018 was President Vladimir Putin’s re-election for another six-year term. In view of the nature of the Putin ... ... and expensive aerospace and naval weapons programs have effectively been pushed back to the mid-2020s or even beyond 2027.
In Syria, Putin will keep trying to convert the military success of the Russian intervention into political and diplomatic gains,...
A series of Russian civil-military concepts can create great benefits for Europe, the Middle East and Asia
Favorable International Situation
... ... hear about that). And the Skripal case. All these are secondary and solvable, issues, once the above hard-points are solved.
Syria
Andrey Kortunov:
Russia: the Power Broker in the Middle East?
If it is at all possible to speak of any “winner” in ...
Russia and its partners can arguably win the war, but they cannot win the peace in Syria
Historically, the Middle East has never been a Russia’s strategic priority comparable to Europe, the North-East Pacific ... ... two states; each of the parties tries to pull Moscow to its side of the conflict. The risks of alienating either Teheran or Jerusalem, or even both of them, are on the rise.
Finally, if Damascus finally has a complete military victory and regains control ...
...
Question:
Foreign Minister, the summit is happening in Helsinki. Russian President V.Putin and US President D.Trump together. Is ... ... with the addition of new members from Eastern Europe. But the European Union is certainly a very important pillar of any world ... ... involvement in Libya, but then there is Russia’s involvement in Syria and that has also created millions of refugees.
S.Lavrov:
... ... also the government responsible for killing of hundreds of thousands of its own citizens, making millions homeless. “A gas ...
... isn't one, Carnegie Center's Dmitry Trenin writes
During the 2014 Ukraine crisis, Russia broke from the post–Cold War system and openly challenged U.S. dominance. This... ... expense of Russian national interests is over.
On the contrary, Russia’s operation in Syria, which began in the fall of 2015, poses a fresh challenge to the U.S.-dominated... ... economic relations with Western Europe.
Russia also hoped that developments in the European Union, including Brexit and elections in France, would lead to a less Atlanticist...
Relations between the U.S. and Russia appear to be almost at the point of no return
Relations ... ... that directly impact domestic politics and popular attitudes. Accusations of interference in the electoral systems raise questions ... ... include security concerns and disputes revolving around NATO and European Union enlargement, Russian actions in Crimea and eastern ... ... Then, in early April 2017, the U.S. fired 59 cruise missiles at Syrian airbase on grounds that the Syrian military had allegedly ...
