putinomics power and money in resurgent russia

Far from stabilizing the region, Russia’s intervention has had the opposite effect.įrom Moscow’s perspective, though, such critiques matter little. Russia has deployed mercenaries to Libya, and Turkey has shipped Syrian militias there in response. There is now an arc of conflict crossing the Eastern Mediterranean. Syria’s civil war has spilled across the region, too, affecting not only neighboring Lebanon and Turkey but also Libya. And Russia has put little money toward rebuilding the country, hoping that the West would eventually foot the bill to avoid further refugee flows to Europe.

Despite continued Russian promises of economic help, Syrian citizens continue to suffer immensely. Reconstruction, meanwhile, remains a distant dream. soldiers were injured in a standoff with Russian troops in northeast Syria. Fighting continues around Idlib, in northwest Syria. Moreover, the “political stabilization, as well as social and economic recovery, of the Middle East” that Putin promised look as far off as ever. As for human rights, the government whose torture of protesters incited the civil war remains firmly entrenched in power. “Violence, poverty, and social disaster” continue to plague the Syrian people. There has been “brazen destruction” aplenty, notably in the brutal assault on Aleppo. “How did it actually turn out?” is a question one might fairly ask of Russia’s war in Syria. Nobody cares a bit about human rights, including the right to life.” To prevent the same from happening in Syria, his argument went, Russia would need to step into the fray.įive years on, Putin’s critique of American interventionism in the Middle East looks a bit rich. … Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty, and social disaster. “Rather than bringing about reforms, an aggressive foreign interference has resulted in a brazen destruction of national institutions. “How did it actually turn out?” Putin asked.

To justify the Russian intervention, Putin pointed a finger at the United States, no stranger to Middle Eastern wars, most of which Russia had opposed. Start with the Kremlin’s rationale for the war. As Russia’s intervention in Syria enters its second half-decade, what can we say about the conflict so far? We have just passed the fifth year since Russia launched its first airstrikes in the Syrian war around the city of Homs. “Far from learning from others’ mistakes, everyone just keeps repeating them.” So argued Russian President Vladimir Putin in September 2015, two days before ordering his country’s military into Syria to support long-ruling dictator Bashar al-Assad’s desperate effort to cling to power.

Putinomics power and money in resurgent russia