They also completed a military operation in Syria, notable in part because Syria is outside of Russia’s sphere of influence (i.e. the post-Soviet sphere), where they achieved their foreign policy objective of stabilizing Assad.
Given that Russia has naval base in Syria since 1971 I don’t think it makes much sense to see it as outside of their traditional sphere of influence.
The realistic extent of Russia’s sphere of influence after 1991 was merely the Post-Soviet republics. The wider sphere that the Soviets held in Eastern Europe, East Africa, the Middle East and Asia effectively implodes then. A demonstration of this is Russia’s policy being essentially irrelevant to the Balkan conflicts.
Given that Russia has naval base in Syria since 1971 I don’t think it makes much sense to see it as outside of their traditional sphere of influence.
The realistic extent of Russia’s sphere of influence after 1991 was merely the Post-Soviet republics. The wider sphere that the Soviets held in Eastern Europe, East Africa, the Middle East and Asia effectively implodes then. A demonstration of this is Russia’s policy being essentially irrelevant to the Balkan conflicts.