Why Russia Support Syria/Assad

To those of you who wonder “Why does Russia support Syria, despite the world opinion against Assad?” The reasons are following:

• Syria buys arms and ammunition worth 700$ million per year from Russia.
• In Syria’s Port city of Tartus, Russia has its only military base in Mediterranean Sea.
• There are an estimated 30,000 Russian citizens living in Syria, most women and children. The Russian population in Syria is the result of an experiment begun in 1963, when the socialist Baath Party came to power.
• The Soviets provided education to top students from Asia, Africa and Latin America, throwing them together with Soviet classmates in work brigades and “evenings of friendship.”
• Syrian men felt genuinely transformed by their time in Russia; they also sought to avoid paying a bride-price as is customary in the Middle East and hence married to women of USSR.
• Russian consular official said about 9,000 Russians have officially registered with the embassy, though upward of 30,000 citizens are believed to be in Syria.
• If Russia started actively supporting USA and world community against Syria, then President Assad and his goons might start killing innocent Russian and in such scenario, Russia doesn’t have evacuation plans for its ‘diospora‘. Besides Such an evacuation operation would be daunting because a vast number of the expatriate wives come from Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova and after 50 years of intermarriage, the line between who is Russian and who is not may be difficult to find.