Earlier today, Russian media began to carry an alert from Russians Ministry of Defense that two “ballistic targets” were spotted over the Mediterranean sea. The inference was that this was related to impending U.S. intervention in Syria. Now, the Israeli Defense Force and the Pentagon have confirmed that this was a test of an Israeli […]
Original artwork by Dan Nott. We’ve been following the Russian government’s response to the Syrian crisis. We’ve written about how Russia has doubled down on its support of Assad in the wake of the August 21st chemical weapon attack, even going as far as to use false reports about Youtube timestamps to obfuscate the realities […]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is often put into the position of defending the Assad regime against UN Security Council actions, and the accusations of the international community. Russia has attempted to place itself between the wrath of the United States and its key allies and the Assad regime by claiming that it is only working […]
Russia has been a staunch supporter of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Since the crisis in Syria began in 2011, Russia has repaired Assad’s attack helicopters, has delivered weapons and munitions to the Syrian regime, and has continuously blocked all actions by the United Nations Security Council, even when those actions only consisted of statements […]
There’s been no shortage of political controversy surrounding the upcoming Sochi Winter Olympic Games. But the tensions are obscuring a potentially vitally important security issue: Could the Sochi 2014 Games become another Olympics where terrorists exploit it to propagate their political views? In 1972, the Olympic spirit of peace and international cooperation was shattered with […]
While Russia has granted political asylum to an American whistleblower, Snowden, and launched a campaign against illegal immigrants, the outflow of Russian citizens who seek a better life in Europe is on the increase. Early this year, the number of asylum seekers from Russia in the European Union exceeded the number of refugees from Syria, […]
To begin with, Barack Obama’s planned summit with Vladimir Putin next month in St. Petersburg, in advance of the upcoming Group of 20 confab in that city, was not really “cancelled,” as has been widely reported. It was “postponed,” a semantic distinction with a difference, even in the style of more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger diplomacy which now characterizes […]
The Kremlin has denied an agreement with Saudi Arabia that would provide Russia with massive arms contracts in exchange for dropping Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Before the denial, however, there was limited reference to the reportedly proposal in most mainstream Russian press outlets. However, one such mention was in MK, a kind […]
Among the many debates surrounding the endless bloodshed in Syria, one of the loudest has been over Russia’s defense of its sale of advanced anti-aircraft missiles (S-300) to the Assad regime. Pointing to the fact that the contracts were signed before the conflict, and justifying their fulfillment as legal under international law, the sale has nevertheless […]
On July 25, Russian Prime Minister Sergey Lavrov met with a Syrian government delegation headed by Qadri Jamil, Assad’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs. The meeting came at the same time that representatives of the Syrian opposition met with the UN Security Council for the first time. Lavrov opened with an introductory speech. The statement contains […]
