The Russia-Ukraine War, underway for two months, continues in full force. Negotiations between the countries, held until about two weeks ago, achieved certain agreements. However, Russia announced the second stage of the invasion, which began on April 19, and it seems that the negotiations will not be renewed in the coming weeks. This raises the question of how the campaign will continue and what might influence its end and its results. At this stage it seems that the end of the war will be determined in the coming weeks in...
One of the key aspects of the war that Russia imposed on Ukraine is the surprising level of steadfastness among the Ukrainian civilian front, which prevents Russia from realizing its military advantage and determining the outcome of the war. The civilian home front in Ukraine was rebuilt after Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, and it functions remarkably well based on the general mobilizing of recruits and volunteering of civilians for a variety of national and local missions, including combat, in the territorial...
War is raging on Ukrainian soil, but the Russian forces have thus far failed to surround and isolate Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. The United States, Great Britain, and the European Union are fully coordinating their response, with a focus on three areas: economic and political isolation of Russia; the supply of military aid to Ukraine; and stepped-up military preparations among NATO countries. It is already clear that Russia’s action upsets the world order that has existed since the end of World War II, and is likely to cause...
The joint announcement by the presidents of China and Russia following their meeting on February 4, 2022 sharpens the conclusion that unlike in the first incarnation of the Cold War, where for the most part these two countries pursued different policies toward the United States, in the new version of this war they form a united front against it. The ideological dimension that separated them has been replaced by a set of fairly similar national-political economic and military interests. In the first round of the Cold War, when the...
Following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw United States forces from the Kurdish zone in northern Syria, the international media and many political and military commentators hurried to crown Russia as the big winner in Syria and present it as the entity enjoying free rein there. The many summits President Putin has recently held with Middle East leaders (including a meeting with Turkish President Erdogan, a state visit to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and a summit in Russia hosted jointly with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah...
The meeting in Jerusalem in late June between the national security advisers of the United States, Washington, and Israel was a preliminary stage in renewing cooperation between Washington and Moscow on a range of issues. In the Syrian context, it was a bid to pressure Moscow to reduce aid and support for Iran in exchange for an easing of the Western sanctions imposed on Russia. For its part, Russia is working to brand itself as a mediator between the United States and Iran on issues ranging from the nuclear file to regional...
The meeting of the national security advisers of the United States, Russia, and Israel in late June is an achievement for Israel’s policy, which navigates between the interests of Moscow and Washington and is a party to the superpowers’ dialogue on the future of Syria and the Iranian intervention in that country. For the United States and Russia, this is another step in the their efforts to create closer ties and to focus the dialogue between them on matters of dispute. The choice of Israel as the venue for the meeting was meant to...
More than two weeks after Prime Minister Netanyahu’s most recent visit to Moscow, the public lacks answers to the four most important questions that concern Israel’s relations with Russia regarding Syria and the Iranian presence there: Has the deconfliction mechanism between Russia and Israel changed since the downing of the Russian plane and the decisive turning of the tide in the Syrian civil war? Has Netanyahu managed to persuade Putin not to give Syria control over the S-300 batteries deployed on Syrian soil? Is the reduction in...
A planned meeting between the United States and Russian Presidents on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires was canceled at the last minute by President Donald Trump, ostensibly in response to Russian aggression toward Ukraine in the Azov Sea, close to the Crimean peninsula. Cancellation of the meeting highlighted a new low point in the ongoing crisis of relations between the US and Russia. In the days following the cancellation, a positive change was evident in Russia’s tone regarding Israel, and it is not impossible that...
The downing of the Russian Il-20 plane by the Syrians on the night of September 17, 2018 has become one of the most complex incidents in the framework of Russia-Israel relations, at least since the start of Russia’s intervention in Syria in October 2015. Following an Israeli attack in the Latakia region, a Syrian SA-5 anti-aircraft battery struck a Russian reconnaissance plane, which crashed into the sea, killing its crew of 15. Although it was Syria that failed to identify the Russian plane, Russia chose to blame Israel for the...
The Trump-Putin summit was marked by attempts by President Trump to minimize American allegations that Russia interfered in the presidential elections. The meeting also reflected the efforts of the two leaders to forge a close relationship, toward a renewed dialogue between their two countries. In practice, it is doubtful if the meeting saw agreement on the long list of matters on the agenda. Regarding Syria, Putin stated that he and Trump agreed to ensure Israel’s security and borders, according to the 1974 Agreement on...
Given the recent escalation between Iran and Israel in Syria and the development of a direct confrontation between them, the question of the Russian position arises: Is Russia trapped between hawkish factors and being forced, against its will, to position itself as a restraining force or can it benefit from an Israeli-Iranian confrontation, especially as it still controlled and limited? Against this background, Russia strives to find a solution to all the challenges it faces vis-à-vis the West, Iran, and Israel. This is done by...
