Civic Engagement Essay: Russia and Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin End-of-Year News Conference; December 2015 The political instability in Syria has escalated to become an issue of international relations. It is an issue that has developed many players from across the world. There are many people involved in the crisis, and the different sides to the problem are what are causing the lack of an unsustainable solution to the problem. One of the biggest players is Russia, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is in the middle of the internationals situation. The issue of Syria and its government is a complex one. Back in 2011, the current President Bashar al-Assad faced a lot of opposition as a leader, and a revolution rose in Syria. It was tribally based on the tribe with the majority of people; the Sunnis and Assad’s tribe Alawite. The differences and conflict led to an all-out civil war with a lot of destruction and loss of life caused by the violence. Assad’s regime was very corrupt and repressing and developed a lot of opposition not only from people belonging to Sunnis but also to the rest of the people in Syria. The Alawite are the minority in the country, and their support for Assad is because of the need for protection from genocide by the Sunnis and Islamic groups such as the ISIS. The country became torn mainly between the Government led by Assad, the rebellion which was mainly the Free Syria Movement and the Jihadist who came in after war broke out in Syria. Internationally different nations had different interests in Syria. For example, the United States supported the rebellion for them to fight off the terrorist group ISIS. Russia and Iran one the other hand supports the government because of their long-term friendship with the government (Syrian conflict, 2016). Russia is, therefore, a major player in the Syrian conflict and it mainly supports the government. First of all, Russia seeks to exert its might in the international world as a major force the way it used to be during the Soviet days. Syria is a country in the Middle East where Russia was well anchored and had adequate control over the Middle East and Asia. Syria and Bashar al-Assad were great allies of Russia for many years, and that is the reason Russia has great support for Assad and the government against the rebellion. It is because of this aspect of control that Russia is willing to do anything to support Assad and his army. According to reports, if it were not for Russia, Assad would have already been overthrown. Russia is the main providers of support regarding military resources for the Syrian government. At the end of year address by President Putin, he addressed the Russian foreign policy, and one of the biggest policies is the support for the Syrian government. The address comes after one of the Russian planes was brought down by a Turkish missile. This is as a result of a poor relationship between Russia and Turkey after Russia bid its support for Kurdish forces for which Turkey considers a terrorist group (Russia and Syria, 2015). The Syrian crisis is one that is affecting the world at large. It has led to increased terrorism and has one of the largest refugee crises in the world. It is an issue rooted to the nationality of the Syrian people where issues of the tribe have not yet been solved. There is a lot of fear between different tribal groups, and these are the fears that led to the conflict. The international community is not handling the issues well enough. Most of the big nations such as Russia and the United States only look after their interest and don’t care about the sovereignty of Syria as a country. The scramble for world domination still exists, and at the moment Syria is just a playing field (Syrian conflict, 2016). ? References Russia and Syria. (2015, December). Retrieved 2017, from https://www.c-span.org/video/?402217-1/russian-president-vladimir-putin-endofyear-news-conference Syrian conflict. (2016, February 25). Retrieved 2017, from http://internationalrelations.org/the-syrian-conflict/