from english.alarabiya.........
"Focusing again on why Russia refuses to condemn Syria, there are many factors to consider – Syria’s prime geostrategic location being number one.
Despite possessing negligible natural gas and oil reserves, Syria possesses precious open-sea access with a sizeable Mediterranean coastline. Russia needs warm water ports for its navy, and as many of them as they can acquire. Over the past decade, Russia has announced and reiterated its intention to return to Soviet-era maritime presence. Syria and the Soviet Union enjoyed strong ties during the Cold War-era.
In 2010, the Russian Navy announced that warships would be permanently stationed out of the once sleepy Syrian port town of Tartous. Given Russia’s own geographical location – it is land-locked except for a coastline that is frozen most of the year - the importance of this naval base to the Russians cannot be underestimated.
The line of thinking in the minds of Russian diplomats at the moment probably goes a little something like this: Assad is currently a powerful, though challenged, brutal dictator. If we vote against him in the UN, and he somehow remains in power, we will lose our precious Mediterranean port. Better to sit this one out.
Other factors Russia is considering include the massive arms deals with nations of North Africa and the Middle East. Syria has a significant arms deal with Russia, though Moscow maintains that they only sell weapons to be used in a defensive manner".............LINK
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