Debris of the A321 Russian airliner. Demotix/ahmed abd el fattah. All rights reserved.The early weeks of Russia's air-campaign in Syria have proved as popular at home as much as they have caused consternation in Washington and western European capitals. On the ground, Moscow's direct military involvement has also helped the Syrian army’s current specific task of protecting the north-western districts supporting Bashar al-Assad's regime from Islamist intervention.
The air-assaults have been very modest compared with the many thousands of United States and coalition airstrikes. Moreover, the use of sea-launched cruise-missiles from warships in the Caspian sea is not new: the US started firing similar missiles in the early days of the first Iraq war in 1991, nearly a quarter of a century ago.
But Russia's military endeavours, if fairly low-level, have also been designed for maximum symbolic effect. Within the region they have established Russia as being essential in any Syrian settlement, and in the wider world they have reinforced the message that Russia is aspiring to regain superpower status. All this even though Moscow's rebuilding of its conventional forces is still in its early stages, and the current economic downturn is exacerbated by low energy prices and the effects of sanctions.
