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Source: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/133189/russia-middle-east-gambit
Russia's Middle-East Gambit
(Tablet) Dmitri Trenin - Moscow's attitude toward the Arab Spring has been cautious from the very start. Unlike Europeans and Americans, Russian officials did not expect Western-style democracy to follow secular authoritarianism: What they began to brace for, early on, was a great Islamist revolution engulfing the entire region. Russia is concerned that Syria will turn into a haven for al-Qaeda-style terrorists. Assad may be problematic, but his enemies constitute a real threat not just to Syria, but also to other countries, including Russia. At the same time, Russia's attitudes toward Israel are overwhelmingly positive. Many Russians admire the social and economic accomplishments of the Jewish state and its technological and military prowess. Intense human contacts under conditions of a visa-free regime and the lack of a language barrier with a significant portion of Israel's population help enormously. The writer is director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.