What Putin’s silence on the situation in Syria indicates
Putin’s silence on the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime highlights the uncertainty surrounding the future of Russian military bases in Syria and underscores the Kremlin’s primary focus: the war in Ukraine, as reported by The New York Times.
Key points from the article:
▫️ The fall of Bashar al-Assad represents a painful topic for Moscow, potentially derailing Putin’s efforts to reassert Russia as a global power.
▫️ A plausible scenario for Russia could involve scaling back its military presence at the Khmeimim airbase and the Tartus naval base, maintaining them only as refueling and staging points for limited military operations in the Mediterranean and Africa.
▫️ However, such a scenario would contradict Putin’s earlier ambitions to showcase Russian power on NATO’s doorstep.
▫️ The current security situation in Syria is likely to remain so fragile that Russia will not be able to deploy nuclear weapons there.
The collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime serves as another serious setback to Putin’s geopolitical ambitions, underscoring the strain on Russia’s resources amid its ongoing war in Ukraine.
