Quick Poll of PONARS Eurasia Members
Q: The press is offering several reasons for Russia preventing international intervention in Syria. What are the TOP Kremlin concerns?
PONARS Eurasia members could select up to three reasons from the list below. The poll was anonymous and taken February 7-8, 2012. Twenty-eight members responded.
- Russian arms shipments to Syria.
- Russian naval supply base.
- Kremlin fears chaos in a Middle Eastern country on the border of its neighborhood.
- Alarm in Moscow of the spread of popular uprisings.
- #1 What happened in Libya, where the Kremlin believes Western forces took advantage of a U.N. resolution to conduct a far wider action.
- #1 Vladimir Putin, who is running for president, sees Western interference behind every mass protest — including in his own country.
- A long-held Russian antipathy toward Saudi Arabia, as Moscow believes the Saudis seek to bolster their Sunni counterparts in Syria.
- The spread of radical Islam is a huge concern among the Russian leadership, especially in the North Caucasus.
- The Kremlin views regime change in Syria as a zero-sum victory for the US.
- Iran-Syria-Russia linkage (i.e., Iran factor).
- Other.
