Defiant Russia Fears Losing 'Last Arab Ally' in Syria

Fearing the loss of its last Arab ally and seeking to reassert its global clout, Russia is defiantly refusing to budge in a high-stakes diplomatic standoff with the West over the crisis in Syria.

Russia, a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member, has exasperated the West by insisting it will not back a new resolution calling on President Bashar al-Assad to step down despite the escalation of violence between the regime and the opposition.

Moscow retains close ties with Assad's secular regime that go back to the Soviet alliance with his father Hafez al-Assad, and Syria remains a major buyer of Russian arms as well as hosting a strategic Russian naval base.

The Kremlin watched the Arab Spring uprisings with anxiety as its ally Moammar Gadhafi was ousted after the air campaign in Libya and the toppling of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak opened the way for increased Islamist influence.

"Russia and Syria have historic ties going back to the Tsars and the Soviet Union. Today Syria is Russia's sole ally in the Middle East," said Boris Dolgov of the Center of Arab Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"If Russia were to give up Syria like Libya then it would terminally ruin our prestige," he said.

Two decades after the Soviet Union's fall and just months ahead of Vladimir Putin's expected return to the Kremlin, Moscow also wants to issue a firm reminder to the West that it is a global power whose position cannot be ignored.

"First, unilateral sanctions are imposed without consulting Russia and then they go to the Security Council seeking our support," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency in an interview.

"Of course, we cannot support such an approach."

The extent of Russia's continued support for Assad was shown in January when a Saint Vincent-flagged cargo ship, the Chariot, docked in Syria after a brief stopover in Cyprus, reportedly carrying a supply of Russian arms.

While never officially confirming this delivery, Russia has openly stated it has every right to ship arms to the Syrian regime in contracts that provide a crucial income source for its weapons industry.

The general director of the Russia's Tactical Missiles Cooperation (TRV) Boris Obnosov told the RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday that Moscow had delivered two years ago to Syria an order for Kh-31 air-to-surface weapons.

He revealed that TRV's losses from broken contracts due to the change of regime in Libya in 2011 amounted to 600 million euros ($790 million).

Russia in October vetoed an earlier Western-backed draft resolution on Syria along with its diplomatic ally China, which is usually happy to follow Moscow's defiance while being far less talkative in public.

Moscow was incensed that its abstention in March 2011 on the resolution that allowed the air campaign in Libya eventually led to the ousting of Gadhafi and appears determined not to allow the same scenario in Syria.

"We cannot agree with the use of the 'Libyan model' as a basis for solving internal disputes," said Gatilov.

Gatilov made clear that Russia would only support a resolution which condemned the violence "from whichever side", called for "objective dialogue" and ruled out the imposition of both military intervention and sanctions.

Georgy Kunadze, a former deputy foreign minister and now of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, said that Russia's intransigence was allowing bloodletting to continue by preventing the adoption of a tough resolution.

"There are times when a state has to stand and protect its own interests, but I'm not sure that's the case here," he told Agence France Presse.

In a bid to position itself as mediator rather than recalcitrant obstacle, Russia on Monday unexpectedly announced that it had invited representatives of the Syrian regime and the opposition to talks in Moscow.

But the opposition rapidly said it had no interest in the idea until Assad stepped down.

"Talks were a nice but hardly realistic idea. It seems like Russia finally will lose its last ally in the region," said daily Vedomosti.