With Russia entering the fold, where is the Syrian crisis headed?

By Harshmeet Singh

The ongoing Syrian crisis is bringing together two of the most unexpected nations at a single stage, the USA and Russia. While the USA led alliance has been carrying out airstrikes in the IS (Islamic State) captured areas for quite a while, Russia's entry into the Syrian crisis couldn't have come any sooner.

Though the recent air strikes carried out by Russia in Syria surprised quite a few, it must be understood that Russia has always had a keen eye on Syria. To put things into perspective, Syria's Tartus holds the only naval base of Russia outside the countries that formed the Soviet Union. Russia was one of the few countries that supported the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad during the deadly civil war in the country. It even used all its force to shoot down a proposal in the UNSC which was seeking to remove Assad from the Presidency. Over the past few years of the Syrian unrest, Russia has been continuously offering financial and military help to the Syrian administration, without getting directly involved in the domestic upheaval.

But with Russia now sending its troops to Syria, the earlier dynamics seem to have changed. Experts are of the view that Mr. Putin is trying to increase the stature of Russia at the world stage and bring back its old glory. But with the Russian troops short of real war experience for many decades, this move can easily backfire. While at the outset it may seem that both the US and Russia are throwing their weight in Syria to bring back normalcy, the fact remains that US is as big a critic of the Assad regime as big a supporter Assad has in the form of Russia.

Russia's increased participation in Syria has also invited sharp reactions from many other countries. The US led coalition, for instance, which also includes Turkey, has asked Russia to put an end to its air strikes, alleging that the Russian planes are targeting innocent civilians and that it would "only fuel more extremism". Russia, on the other hand, says that it is exclusively targeting IS sites. These strikes were Russia's first active military operation outside the states of former Soviet Union, ever since the cold war ended in 1991.

Several meetings were held between the Russia officials and the leaders of the US led coalition on the sidelines of the 70^th United Nations General Assembly. Giving minimal attention to the concerns of the US led coalition, a senior official from the Russian ranks said that the air strikes would continue for another 3-4 months. There is another ongoing conspiracy theory behind the scenes, according to which the Russian planes are exclusively targeting the Syrian rebels who are being supported by the US led alliance to overthrow the Assad regime. Whatever the actual dynamics of the situation be, this habit of world powers of battling against each other at a battleground of the third country only brings destruction to innocent people.

The author is a Freelance writer. This piece was exclusively written for NewsGram.