Moscow Times called me yesterday regarding the Russian position on the civil war in Syria
They misspelled my name, but at least they got PRIO right, and the relevant bit reads as follwing:
Libya was probably only a "tactical" deviation from a long-held foreign policy doctrine of opposing any kind of revolution, said Pavel Bayev, an analyst with the Peace Research Institute in Oslo. "At that point, there was some nervousness that they would be backing the losing horse if they opposed the uprising against Gadhafi," he said by telephone.
He said Gadhafi's tenacity might have convinced the Kremlin that the fall of Assad's regime was not inevitable — and convinced it to return to its cast-iron policy that "all revolution is evil."
"Russia is interested in building a counter-revolutionary alliance with China and some Middle Eastern monarchies," he said. "And from that point of view, it is probably more worried about Turkey's position than criticism from Europe or the United States."
Turkey, which neighbors Syria, announced Wednesday that it would implement unilateral sanctions despite the veto.
Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/news-analysis-kremlin-not-hardening-policy-with-syria-veto/444899.html#ixzz1a0L3QaGy
The Moscow Times
