Quinn Novick explains current Russian intervention in Middle Eastern politics, specfically regarding the Syrian Civil War.
By Quinn Novick Credit: The Myriad News
Soviet Intervention in the Third World is no new development
Russian imperialist ambitions in oil-rich states are no new development. From the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Soviet Union has directly interfered in the underdeveloped world, claiming to end the ‘imperialistic ambitions’ of the Western imperialist lowercase “imperialist”
Powers. Soviet intervention in the Syrian Revolution proved no exception to this.
Russian, or rather Soviet, intervention occurred once more in 1980 when the Soviet Union displayed a strong interest in the region, comma here, not a semicolon
gaining concessions from from
the likes of Egypt’s Nasser and India’s Nehru. Putin’s implementation of Stalinistic RealPolitik is, rather, a reflection of the geopolitical strength that the modern Russian state looks to exert in the Middle East, expanding its sphere of influence in a frighteningly similar fashion that occurred under the rule of Stalin and Brezhnev. Brezhnev
Since 2011, Putin’s Russia has intervened in the Syrian Civil War. Supporting the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Russian military has deployed its boots on the ground – the first time it has done so since the existence of the Soviet Union.
Acting as a beacon of hope for the regime of al-Assad against the American backed ‘terrorists’ is a frightening parallel of the situation that occurred during the Afghani war. What was once known as the Mujahideen, is a mere reflection of the modern-day Syrian rebels—a parallel of continued Soviet intervention in the Middle East.
Putin’s expansionism is a representation of Stalinistic expansionist behavior
Modern Russian ties to Syria represents a yearning for the past, either to invoke Leninist dreams of a Socialist Paradise or to remember the long-forgotten days of Stalin’s radical plans for Soviet world domination. Putin’s inspiration comes from the latter. Just as Soviet leaders in the 1940s and 1950s stringently developed economic ties to countries in the Middle East, so does the fragile Russian state exudes its tentacles across Eurasia.
Rather than varying for superpower status, the modern Russian state is in ruins, an economic and demographic dwarf of its former self. It is then to be expected that the natural response would be foreign aggression in the former Soviet Sphere, clinging onto any chance for a stronghold in resource-heavy nations.
Fortunately, Russia won’t be expanding its influence far anytime soon. As it once succumbed to the Stinger missiles of the Mujahideen, the Russian Empire will once again fall to the whims of its internal demise and will fall in Syria.