World Press on Russia's line on Syrian crisis (May 29, 2012)

As the Syrian conflict escalates and the major massacre of civilians in Houla is drawing international attention, world media discuss Russia's position on the crisis. Russia is continuing to support the notorious al-Assad regime despite international pressure, while experts are trying to find out why Russia's Putin still backs Bashar al-Assad.

In an article by Shaun Walker published by The Independent headlined 'How far can Syria go before Moscow withdraws support?' the author tries to identify Russia's actual position on the crisis. Asked yesterday whether the Houla massacre should be the moment when Russia finally drops its support for the Assad regime, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow had never supported Bashar al-Assad. "We do not support the Syrian government," Mr Lavrov said. "We support the plan of Kofi Annan." Optimists may find some hope for a future consensus in these words, but that would be ignoring the tone of Mr Lavrov's remarks, the author says. "We do not know what exactly Moscow is saying to Mr Assad privately and it may be that Russia's line behind closed doors is very different to what Mr Lavrov said publicly yesterday and Mr Assad has been warned that further atrocities will result in Russia being forced to abandon its ally, perhaps the only kind of pressure that will work," the author concludes.

The Financial Times also published an article devoted to Minister Lavrov's statement. According to the article, the Kremlin truly believes in the conspiracy theory and is afraid that it will lose its influence in Syria (and the whole region) and suggests that the humanitarian tragedy is exaggerated by western media.

In her article 'Auch der Friedensplan ist gestorben' ('The peace plan is dead indeed') in Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Sonja Zekri expresses concern about the ongoing conflict, saying that the chance of stopping the violence is small. She also believes that NATO is not ready for military intervention. In such circumstances Russia's veto in the UN Security Council should be used by western powers to think over the situation and develop a concrete plan to settle the conflict.

In an interview with Ekho Moskvy, the editor of Snob magazine and former editor of the Russian version of GQ Nikolay Uskov said that Russia is using any chance to maintain an unstable situation in the Middle East. Russia is interested in high oil prices and that is why it opposes any plans to resolve the conflict, Uskov believes.