(Russian PM) accepted that the Arab springs in Syria and elsewhere were spontaneous ...

[tabatha]

I have had to meet some really nasty dictators over the years. Most of them, such as Fidel Castro and Robert Mugabe, could be unexpectedly amiable, with an infectious sense of humour, and I had to remind myself of their vicious treatment of their own people. The most sinister, however, was Hafez al-Assad, whom I met in Damascus in 1995. He smiled with his lips but never with his eyes, which were cold and implacable. He was the butcher of Hama, who had killed between 20,000 and 40,000 of his fellow citizens in 1982, the last time the Syrian people rose against the Assad regime.

His son, the mild-mannered, skinny ophthalmologist who studied in London, has “only” 7,000 deaths on his conscience, so far, but this is pretty certain to get far worse. Can anything be done to prevent a full civil war and the deaths of tens of thousands?

Military intervention has, rightly, been ruled out. The Syrian insurgents, unlike their Libyan forerunners, do not already control large stretches of territory; this enabled Nato air power to protect the Libyans and prevent civilian massacres. In any event, the Russian and Chinese vetoes at the UN would prevent any Nato attack having the international legitimacy that was crucial to getting world and Arab opinion on side in Libya.

Last week I had dinner with a former Russian prime minister who has many years of experience in the Middle East. He accepted that the Arab springs in Syria and elsewhere were spontaneous, popular uprisings and not the result of Western mischief, as claimed in Damascus, Tehran and, occasionally, Moscow. But he was adamant that Russia’s opposition to action through the UN would not change. The Russians had, he believed, made a serious mistake in allowing intervention in Libya. They would not do so again.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9082067/An-economic-blockade-can-defeat-President-Bashar-al-Assad.html

Note - NATO has no desire to get involved in Syria.

[pampango]

1. Good to hear the Russian leader say that even if they still plan to block UN action.

Syria is in Russia's "sphere of influence" so they will not allow any UN action, but at least that's a policy (even though I dont' agree with it) that is based on facts rather than on conspiracy theories.