by HABIBE OZDAL
First of all, Russia prefers to evaluate uprisings in the Middle East as domestic issues of the countries. In the case of international operation to Libya, Russia did not veto the UN resolution, choosing to abstain instead. As for Syria, Russia firmly stands against such intervention not only because Moscow is not content with the Libya operation but also Syria means a lot to Russia.
Putin took over from the Yeltsin era the tendency of looking to the Middle East from an economic point of view. Since Putin knew that recovery of the Russian economy is a must in order to restore Russia’s great power status, this trend sustained. Therefore during the early 2000s Russia used mostly economic tools, mainly arms trade agreements in its policy towards Middle East. As a consequence of these agreements Moscow became the number one arms supplier in the Middle East. According to Igor Korotchenko, head of a Moscow-based think-tank on international arms trade, Russian arms sales to Algeria and Syria constitute about one-eighth of Russia’s portfolio of arms orders worldwide, which totals $ 48 billion.
While Russian foreign policy was dominated by economy in Middle East, when it comes to Syria another dimension of Russian foreign policy towards this region fade in: mediation. Relative improvement in Russian economy was followed by Russian great power claims in international arena. Moscow’s great power initiative in the Middle East was formulated as a mediator. Syria is one of the pillars upon which Russia establishes its mediation role. Indeed Moscow tries to be part of any initiative aiming solution between Israel and Syria.
2005 has been a breaking point in terms of Damascus-Moscow relations. During Syrian President Bashar Assad’s state visit to Russia in January 2005, a protocol was signed to write-off % 73 of Syria’s debt ($ 9,8 million). This protocol paved the way to enhanced mutual relations. For Syria, which was isolated in international scene, Russia was a very important partner. As for Russia we can say that Moscow discovered the advantages that can have in exchange for debt cancellation. As mentioned above the most important advantage was having good relations not only with Israel but also with Syria which could strengthen Russia’s hand in its mediator role. The reason why Syria matters for Russia can be explained in light of three facts. The first fact is that if Russia loses its good relations with the Assad regime, its role as a mediator will probably be damaged.
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