Dotting the I’S & Crossing the T’S
Moscow: Syria is a strategic base of hundred billion Euros
Written by Nasser Kandil,
My Russian friend who is in contact with the first grade leadership in Moscow by virtue of his positions which he occupied during the past decades has told me yesterday, that the Russian perspective towards Syria is exceeding what many of Syria’s friends and its opponents see, he commented on my previous article about the understanding of some of the Arabs of the Russian interest in Syria and said, maybe Russia had not enough answer about its vision towards Syria in the beginning of the crisis. But this vision has developed dynamically with the development of the events, The first Russian veto in the Security Council was not of that easiness which a resolution may be issued and that applied a strategic perspective for a great country, but what came later was easier and easier after the diplomatic makers had realized that the correctness of what they are doing regarding the interests and not only the principles.
My friend said that the Syrian requests are still much more under the level of Syria’s place in the Russian accounts, even if the Russian officers argued and negotiated in every small details deprived from coldness of the weather of their country, but the negotiated respond will be the same whether the Syrian request was big or small. At the end the criterion in Moscow is the decision and not the process of the negotiation. Russia does not find a strategic partner in the world as important and has rank and as close as Syria; this is a fact that every Russian who is concerned with the economical security military strategic issues is talking about, they are talking with admiration about the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, and his augustness, elegance, personality, and bravery, they shared the kidding about the comparison between him and the isolated former President of Ukraine the previous friend of Russia. They talk about the championships of the Syrian army which is undefeated, and which constitutes a reliable ally in a Muslim country, where the Muslims and the Christians share a secular regime, in which there is an inherent Orthodox church that resisted the Ottoman Turkey, as it resisted the West Crusade, it supported the Arabism in its national wars and this is not existed in any other country in the world. Syria is a country which its importance is discovered by the Caesar the second Katarina two centuries ago; where it said that the security of Moscow is in Damascus. Geographically, besides to the importance of Syria’s position in the region, it is near Moscow and its only window to the Mediterranean. The Russians feel when they cross the Bosphorus that they arrive to another Moscow when they are at the Syrian coast. My friend who is an expert in the security affairs said that the long –term investment of equipping, training, and arming the Syrian army which showed exceptional fighting capabilities means the obtaining of a partner that equals in the Middle East the Atlantic Alliance altogether.
The Russian retired friend said that the position of Syria today like the position of Czechoslovakia in the Soviet era, this rank is too much exceeded the rank of Eastern Germany, Czech has the position of the spoiled son, Iran may resemble the position of the Western Germany, while Syria which has Gas and oil on the Mediterranean, and which has numerous various vital economic, cultural and attractive climate environment and number of the speakers of the Russian language who graduated from universities and institutes of the Soviet, besides to an active church, and a profound history in the Christian memory is a desired tourist destination for the ruich of Moscow and its middle classes who most of them take Cyprus as a second place for their business. As well as the Russian companies which are interested in reconstructing Syria after the war, as the interested companies in exploring gas and oil, and the companies which are interested in the long-termed investments in a country which proved the ability of the political regime to withstand against an international war. So why the investor has to fear of his money?
The Russian friend said that he has heard from a senior Russian officer that Syria is equal to an investment of one hundred billion Euros, he did not know what was the intention, was it the value of Syria as a treasure that is indispensable or was the intension what Syria deserves of investments or what was agreed upon.
Translated by Lina Shehadeh
2014-12-01 | عدد القراءات 1899
