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Source: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/putin-between-assad-and-mubarak/460010.html
Explaining Putin's Support for Assad
(Moscow Times-Russia) Alexander Golts - Since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis, the West has been trying to find a rational reason for why Moscow has supported Assad, whose days in power are undoubtedly numbered. Why is the Kremlin risking its international reputation to support a bloody dictator? The answer, it would seem, lies in the field of psychology. Putin identifies with Assad, Gaddafi and Mubarak. He is firmly convinced that democracy, the rule of law and human rights are all little more than contrivances that allow the West to control weaker nations. This also explains why Putin believes that the street protests in Moscow are a creation of hostile Western intelligence agencies and that the protests in Syria, Libya and Egypt were engineered by subversive forces funded by the West. The writer is deputy editor of the online newspaper Yezhednevny Zhurnal.