Mia Jankowicz and Thibault Spirlet
The fall of Bashar Assad has thrown Russia's military presence in Syria into question. It also poses a threat to Russia's ability to project power throughout the Middle East and beyond.
On Sunday, Syrian rebels, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, overthrew Syria's longtime autocratic ruler.
It followed a dizzying two-week campaign that caught the world off guard and many are now trying to work out what will come next for the country.
Russia has been a close ally of Syria and has leases on two military bases in the country, giving it a strategic foothold in the Middle East.
"It hits them hard," Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior advisor to the Counter Extremism Project, said of Russia.
He added: "Syria has been their most reliable Arab ally."
A springboard to power
In 2017, Syria granted Russia a 49-year lease on the Hmeimim air base and the Tartus naval base, in return for military assistance.
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