Nazlıhan Babaoğlu

Dmitri Trenin, the current director of the Moscow based think-tank the Carnegie Moscow Center, raises a question that has been the interest of many nowadays, owing to recent developments in the Middle East. A turbulent region shaken by constant political and military conflicts and outside interventions, the Middle East is now witnessing an ongoing war, namely the Syrian civil war, which has welcomed Russia to meddle in defense of the Assad regime through military intervention. Moscow’s interest in the region is not new; the Middle East drew Russia’s attention during the Cold War and even before.