President Putin’s desire to block military action against the Assad regime signals a hardening of foreign policy fuelled by suspicion of the West.
Russia remains angry about the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, believing that it was misled after Dmitry Medvedev, then President, ordered Russia to abstain on a UN Security Council motion that authorised military action to protect civilians. Mr Putin later condemned the intervention as a “crusade” and accused the West of going beyond its UN mandate.
Russia has twice vetoed resolutions at the Security Council that it feared could lead to military action against Syria. Some analysts suggested that Putin was digging in to show the United States that it cannot ignore Russia now he is President.
Sergei Markov, co-chairman of Russia’s National Strategic Council, said: “This is a response to those who betrayed Russia over Libya. It means not only that Russia should not trust them again but that, if they don’t respect us, we should do something to make them respect us.Direct intervention in Middle Eastern countries usually leads to social catastrophe, as in Iraq and Libya.”
The Kremlin has had close ties with Syria since the Soviet era and Russia considers the Assad regime to be its last ally in the Middle East. Syria hosts Russia’s only naval base in the Mediterranean Sea, while Moscow is its main supplier of weaponry, selling $1 billion of arms last year.
Advertisement
Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s Ambassador to the European Union, said before yesterday’s summit in St Petersburg that Russia was not defending Assad. He said: “We are defending international law and Syrians’ right to determine their own country’s future.”