John R. Bradley

Why Putin backs Assad

Our Syria plans have been a total shambles – leaving a vacuum for Russia's

issue 26 September 2015

At the outset of Syria’s brutal four-year civil war, I was an almost unique voice in the British media deploring the push to depose the secular dictator President Bashar al-Assad, especially in the absence of a genuinely popular uprising against him. Here in The Spectator I tried to point out that such a short-term strategy would have devastating long-term consequences.

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