Russia’s role in Middle East politics endures, shifts to being ‘secondary power’

AI Summary

Despite expectations of a sharp decline, Russia maintains a significant but secondary role in Middle East politics, having operated approximately 100 military facilities in Syria during its intervention since 2015, supporting the Assad regime and allied with Iran and regional proxies.

Russia is confounding expectations that its influence in the Middle East would drastically decline after the downfall of Syria’s Assad regime in 2024. At the time, Moscow operated about 100 military facilities in the war-torn country, following its intervention in the Syrian civil conflict from 2015 to prop up then president Bashar al-Assad in alliance with Iran and its regional proxies. When Assad was forced to flee to Moscow, and control of most of Syria was seized by Islamist rebels led by...