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Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article4576184.ece
The Syrian Gambit: Russia Should Not Pretend It Can Drag the Middle East Back to the Cold War
[Times-UK] Editorial - The ripples created by the crisis in the Caucasus are spreading fast, and there is a risk that a wholesale realignment of the Middle East along Cold War lines could follow. Russia's reasons for seeking to draw Syria back into its orbit are clear: strategically, the Russian Navy gains the prospect of access to two Syrian warm-water ports just as Ukraine attempts to rewrite its rules for Russian use of bases in Crimea. Moscow has also been able to announce the dispatch of Russian air defense systems to Syria on the very day that the U.S. signed a missile defense pact with Poland. Diplomatically, a rapprochement (after years of strained relations because of unpaid Syrian debts) sends a signal to NATO that containing the new Russia will take more than merely co-opting its neighbors.