Yeah the moment the civil war ended in Syria I started chatting with folks about what this means for Russia’s presence in Ukraine. They can’t handle both of these crises at once. To say they need this warm water port Is beyond an understatement. This is as significant to Russia as the US losing Israel in the Middle East with regards to ME power projection. Their entire hub of power projection for the region just vanished along with their only real warm water port.
This is as significant to Russia as the US losing Israel in the Middle East with regards to ME power projection.
Russia’s situation is worse. If the US lost Israel, the US would still have bases in Bahrain in the Persian Gulf and Djibouti in the Red Sea for power projection in the ME plus others. Russia’s other warm water ports are in the Black Sea (which can be cut off by NATO member Türkiye or Kamchatka in the Pacific far from most everything else in Russia.
Yeah the moment the civil war ended in Syria I started chatting with folks about what this means for Russia’s presence in Ukraine. They can’t handle both of these crises at once. To say they need this warm water port Is beyond an understatement. This is as significant to Russia as the US losing Israel in the Middle East with regards to ME power projection. Their entire hub of power projection for the region just vanished along with their only real warm water port.
Russia’s situation is worse. If the US lost Israel, the US would still have bases in Bahrain in the Persian Gulf and Djibouti in the Red Sea for power projection in the ME plus others. Russia’s other warm water ports are in the Black Sea (which can be cut off by NATO member Türkiye or Kamchatka in the Pacific far from most everything else in Russia.
Fair US does have “backups.” And yeah there’s Black Sea but that’s why I said “basically”