RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN MIDDLE EAST AND ITS MILITARY INTERVENTION IN SYRIA

Russia's military intervention in Syria since september 2015 marks a turning point in its foreign policy after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russia has in Syria and in the whole region several interests, like the control of military bases, enegy projects and regional alliances. However, Moscow pursued also other objectives which are capital to its global strategy. Russian authorities aim to change the structure of the International System toward a multipolar order in which it wants to be considered as a great power and, at the same time, to decrease American power in the region. Moscow has seen USA's failure trying to change authoritarian regimes in Afganistan (2001), Irak (2003) or Libia (2011), as an opportunity to achieve those goals. This Russian strategy has introduced a new balance of power in the Middle East, although it has not change the traditional order of the region or revised the existing order. Moscow seeks to preserve the status quo and reinforce authoritarianism.