Anna Borshchevskaya is the Harold Grinspoon Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute, focusing on Russia's policy toward the Middle East.
Articles & Testimony
Wishful thinking aside, Moscow will continue to push solely for its own interests in these discussions, which for the foreseeable future means empowering Assad.
Diplomats will soon meet in New York at the UN Security Council to renegotiate the terms of the cross-border humanitarian assistance to Syria, specifically the reauthorization of relief via Resolution 2533, set to expire in July. Informal diplomatic moves have already begun this week when Secretary of State Tony Blinken chaired a UN Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Syria. Formal discussion on the resolution may start in May. The role of Russia, a key backer of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and a permanent Council member, is critical. In private, some policymakers believe the Kremlin can be convinced to be less obstructive this year than in the past. Such optimism is unwarranted...
