Russia's political support for the state power of the Syrian Arab Republic (2012-2018): results and conclusions

Intra-Syrian conflict erupted in 2012. From the very beginning, the Russian Federation, as a reliable partner, has consistently provided support to the legitimate Syrian authorities, primarily political. The international community’s response to the confrontation of political forces in the independent state has been mixed, with a number of factors at play. The first factor was that a significant number of countries supported the escalation of the Syrian war and the disintegration of society and the state in SAR. The second was that Western countries were not planning a direct intervention in Syria. At the same time, some members of the League of Arab States (hereinafter -LAS) from the Persian Gulf region were prepared for external military intervention in the situation of confrontation on the territory of SAR, although they could not take this step on their own. The third factor was Russian political support for the SAR at the UN and other international venues. The article examines the main aspects of Russia’s assistance to the legitimate Syrian authorities and reveals the specifics of the Foreign Ministry’s activities in the Syrian direction of Russian Middle East policy during the period under study.