Russia and Syria.

• Author: Kiehl, William P.
• Position: Brief article

Text: RUSSIA AND SYRIA

By David Satter, Senior Fellow, FPRI

http://www.fpri.org/enotes/2012/201206.satter.russia-and-syria.html

Reviewed by William P. Kiehl, Ed. D., Contributing Editor, American Diplomacy

David Satter, a senior fellow at FPRI, former Moscow correspondent of the Financial Time,s and writer for the Wall Street Journal, is a prolific and knowledgeable specialist on Russia. His work has been reviewed in these pages earlier (http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2012/0106/iar/iar04_looming.html), and his realistic and sobering views on contemporary Russian domestic and foreign policies are a welcome relief from some of the more unrealistic expectations of the Obama administration's "reset" policy.

This article on Russia's contemporary relations with Syria and its long-standing support of the Assad regimes (father and son) points out that in Russia's view, support to Syria's despicable dictatorship is in Russia's national interests. Russia sells a great many arms to Syria, which...