The Russian role in the Middle East (Syria) 2013-2020

This thesis discusses the role of Russia in Middle East particularly Syria 2013-2020. The thesis also focuses on a number of objectives that govern the activities of Russia in the Middle East. The Middle East had a significant role in the competition between the USSR and the US. Crisis within the Russian Federation and a subsequent lack of interest in the region followed the dissolution of the USSR. After the Arab Spring, which Russian authorities saw as being driven and directed by the West, primarily the US, the Middle East once again entered the Kremlin's geostrategic thinking. This is why Vladimir Putin took action after the fall of the Libyan leader or the open ambitions of the West to depose Bashar Al-Assad. In this dissertation, we offer a reading of Russian foreign policy, its military involvement action in Syria including Moscow's reemerging superpower. A light here is also shed, besides the military intervention, on the necessary motivation of the Russian foreign policy makers who are involved in the Syrian conflict on both regional and international stages. When the Syrian Civil war has emerged, Russia has quickly responded in favor of Al-Assad regime. At the same time, due to the failure of the US on the Middle East policies especially after 9/11, the terrorist activities in the Middle East region have spread to the rest of the world. President Putin's long-term objectives in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean region have becoming a power in the Middle East region. This thesis argues that Syria's external ally represented by Russia appears to be continued and that Russia will keep supporting Assad's regime so as to gain common interests and play a major role in regional and global politics.