The international community was surprised by a Russian-sponsored draft resolution on Syria. However, the Kremlin's intentions seem clear. As the death toll has risen to 5 thousand people, Russia cannot continue its policy towards the Assad regime. The images of Russia and China have already been spoiled by their controversial positions on the issue.
Certainly, western countries and Turkey are concerned about the humanitarian crisis hitting Syria, but they do have another interest. The West wishes to overthrow Assad as a major ally of Iran. The point is that western states hoped that the so-called Arab Spring would affect Iran, although in fact the influence was very slight. So western countries decided to act themselves, Azerbaijani expert Fikret Sadykhov told VK.
Russia's former line on the Assad regime was quite understandable. Russia has a military base in Syria. Taking into consideration the country's cooperation with Assad, one can easily predict the future of this base. It's worth noting that the idea of establishing a Russian base in Libya died with Colonel Gaddafi.
Now the situation has changed and Russia has to adopt another policy in the Middle East in order to maintain some kind of influence in the region. That's why Russia decided to propose a new resolution on Syria.
Orkhan Satarov, head of VK European office. Special to VK
