In the National Review, Ilan Berman takes note of Moscow’s recent assertiveness in the Mideast in a way that Israel and the US can no longer ignore. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been drawing up arms sales with Syria, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, selling nuclear technology to Iran, and is taking on a greater profile in the Palestinian conflict. Last month, Mahmoud Abbas (pictured with Putin) paid his first state visit outside the Mideast to Russia. What’s Putin’s agenda?
Moscow’s renewed maneuvers in the Middle East have everything to do with ideology. Over the past year, Putin’s increasingly authoritarian governing style has succeeded in eliminating any semblance of serious domestic opposition to the Kremlin, giving the Russian president virtual carte blanche to formulate foreign and defense policy. Worse still, this growing political mandate has been mirrored by the revival of unhealthy notions of Russian greatness and geopolitical opposition to the United States.
(Hat tip: Daily Alert)
