Syria, Russia and the Transformed Middle East

The unrest and resulting civil war, that engulfed the nation of Syria has now been raging for about five years. To begin with it was unclear what would come out of the Syrian civil war, but there were certain events that seemed probable - many of us may have said, “Wouldn’t it be significant if Russia were to move into Syria”. Five years on, at least some of the results are becoming quite clear. Today Russia is in Syria. Russia is now saying that they will be withdrawing some of their forces from Syria. What this will exactly entail and when remains to be seen, but the fact is that Russia will have a much stronger presence in Syria and in the Middle East going forward. Russia’s move to pull back some of its troops came as a surprise, however it is probably a tactical pull back, the reason for which will become apparent.