Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Russia has been deemed the most powerful supporter of
the beleaguered regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Baker Institute has asserted that the Kremlin was providing
massive military support to Assad, who has been fighting a Sunni revolt for
more than two years. In a report, the institute said the Russian Army has
also been supplying personnel to operate Syria’s air defense network.

“Moscow has also supplied airmen to assist with the manning of Syrian
air defense bases,” the report, titled “Syria At the Crossroads,” said.

Authors Edward Djerejian and Andrew Bowen, who gained access to numerous Syrians, said Russia has been the leading defense exporter to Damascus, with a military of 619,000. The report said Moscow delivered $246 million in weapons in 2011, and that Syria accounts for 10 percent of Russian arms exports.

“This support can be predominantly attributed to President Vladimir
Putin’s calculation that the emergence of an Islamist-backed regime in Syria could potentially inspire and encourage the development of more assertive political Islamist movements in Russia’s vulnerable Caucuses,” the report said.

The report said Russia does not want to lose one of its most trusted
allies in the Middle East. Bowen and Djerejian cited the Russian Navy base in the Syrian port of Tartous, and said the Kremlin does not want to lose
another Middle East ally after the fall of Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya in
2011.

“Putin has sought to avoid a situation similar to the one that unfolded
Libya, where the international community used a UN-backed resolution, which
Russia did not veto, to authorize regime change,” the report said.

The report urged the United States to work with Moscow to end the civil
war in Syria. Bowen and Djerejian assessed that Assad’s regime, with massive
help from China, Iran and Russia, was still far from collapse.

“The U.S. should conduct high-level diplomacy to find common interests
with Russia to end the violence in Syria and ease the fears of a post-Assad
transition,” the report said.

  gave massive military support, Kremlin, port of Tartous, Putin called top backer of Syria’s Assad, Sunni revolt, Vladimir Putin