Return to Damascus
Local Russian News In English
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is to pay an official visit to Syria on May 11 for the first time in the history of Russian-Syria bilateral relations. Syria, which was the Soviet Union?s main strategic ally in the Middle East throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, was simply dropped from the list of Moscow?s foreign policy priorities in the early 1990s. Damascus perceived the break-up of the Soviet Union, along with Moscow?s decision to renounce global confrontation with Washington and the restoration of Russian-Israeli diplomatic relations in 1991, as a betrayal of the Arab world?s interests and part of a global Zionist conspiracy.
Source: Russia Profile.org