15 December 2024

Syria has exposed Russia’s frailty Putin's multipolar world is a sha

Ian Garner

Five months ago, Vladimir Putin declared that the so-called “multipolar world” had become a reality. He surely imagined this meant Russia would be one of only a handful of powerful nations able to dominate 21st-century global politics. But if the sudden collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria is anything to go by, then the multipolar reality is for Russia one of chaos and enfeeblement.

For a quarter of a century, Putin has dreamed of ending the era of American hegemony that followed the Cold War. Just 11 days after his shock appointment as acting president in 1999, Putin signed a National Security Policy declaring that "Russia will facilitate the formation of an ideology of establishing a multipolar world". In theory, the "multipolar world" describes the end of american unipolarity. In reality, it is a synonym for the return of Russia's international standing.

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