Saturday, 4 February 2012

Russia Saves Assad

It is odd that both China and Russia should have vetoed the UN resolution on Syria particularly after the the deaths in Homs today caused by the Syrian army's shelling. The Russians say that it is their policy not to intervene in civil wars which is curious since they intervened in the 2008 Georgia civil war. The Russians had at one point indicated that if certain changes were made to the resolution they would support it including the removal of wording the Syrians had already agreed to with the Arab League. Russia has always supported the Assad regime in Syria which has close connections to Iran and to Hezbollah. It is much more likely that Russia wants to remain friendly with Assad as he guarantees the continued use of a naval base for the Russian Navy. As to China it was never going to support the resolution as it sees it as a step on the way to enforcing regime change in Syria by the West. China is far too insecure to entertain regime change as someone, sometime may wish to change the Chinese regime. Regime change is something which no doubt worries the Russians as well since they are hardly a western style democracy. Although it was good to see that in excess of 40,000 demonstrators braved the minus 20 celsius temperatures in Moscow today to campaign for regime change without being beaten up. That is progress of some sort but the Putin, Russia and the West series on BBC 2 show quite clearly what a nasty piece of work Putin is - one would not want to meet him on a dark night.    

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