According to Stratfor, a US-based private analytic company, Russia has really become more influential in the Middle East.
According to the recent report released by Stratfor the other day, since the Russian federation has deployed its troops in Syria, it has been increasing its role in the entire region. Apart from helping Iran (shipping weapons) and Egypt (investing through Russian tourists), Russia has been actively participating in several regional disputes at the same time.
In particular, Russia has been some kind of a mediator in the negotiations related to the Libyan and Palestinian disputes. At the same time, the Russian federation has been the key ally of Syria’s existing government, which has been tightly cooperating with Iran.
Experts say that today Israel and turkey may count on Russia’s help as well. Israel is concerned about the situation near the Syrian-Israeli border while the Syrian Kurds present a serious problem for Turkey. Stratfor says that Russia got involved in the conflict just to get an instrument of influencing the United States and the NATO.
The experts say that Moscow does indeed value the relations with Israel and Turkey. However, Russia has another goal to reach by means of participating in the Syrian conflict. Namely, Russia wants to get rid of the Russian sanctions imposed on it by the Western world because of its aggression against Ukraine. Apparently, any decision related to those sanctions depends on the US and the EU. So, Russia decided to get directly involved in the Syrian conflict to be able to influence the decisions made by those countries involved in the resolution of the long-lasting conflict in the Middle East. At the same time, Moscow has been looking for the ways and means to exert pressure on the USA and the EU.
For now, despite all the disputes, Russia and the USA seem to have agreed to ally their forces to destroy the ISIS and the international Islamic terrorism. Some sources report that they are working on an assault operation on Rakka. Russia hopes that if the operation ends up being a success, the relations between Moscow and Washington will improve a little and Russia will make another step closer to getting rid of the Western sanctions without having to give the Crimea back. That remains to be seen…
