Analysis of Russia's Putin-era Syria policy in the context of Neoclassical Realism

The Middle East geography, which has hosted the struggle for the interests of the great powers throughout history, still maintains this feature today and appears as the field of the struggle of the great powers. For Russia, this region has always been important geography in terms of the security of its southern borders and breaking the perception of geopolitical containment. Since the period of Tsarist Russia, the interest in the region of Russia has continued until today, although it has been thrown into the background in foreign policy from time to time. Russia, which has deep and historical ties with the regional states, especially Syria, left its silent stance and became involved in the events with a proactive approach, after the process that broke out in Tunisia in 2010 and went into the literature as the Arab Spring, spread to Syria, its only ally in the region. The subject discussed in this thesis is analyzed from the perspective of Neoclassical Realism, which argues that the internal factors should be included in the analysis as well as the systemic stimulus factors that are effective in the analysis of the foreign policy-making processes of the states. In this context, the Syrian policy of the Russian Federation; has been evaluated through the intrastate characteristic of Russia, which is in the category of internal factors, and the perception of the state leader. This thesis, which is handled within the framework of neoclassical realism, has analyzed the foreign policy behaviors of the Russian Federation in the Putin period in the context of domestic variables and the leader factor. In the context of Neoclassical Realism, the effects of internal variables and the leader factor on the foreign policy outputs of the Russian Federation during the Putin period were examined.