Russia and the Arab Spring: supporting the counter-revolution : WestminsterResearch

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Title	Russia and the Arab Spring: supporting the counter-revolution
Type	Journal article
Authors	Dannreuther, R.
Abstract	Russia’s response to the Arab Spring ranged from apprehension to deep anxiety and diverged significantly from the US and the EU responses. While initially welcoming the popular demands for political reform in North Africa, the Russian reaction rapidly became more critical as a result of Western military intervention into Libya and the threat of the spread of Islamist extremism. It was these twin fears which prompted the Russian leadership to adopt an uncompromizing stance towards Syria. While geopolitical factors certainly played a role in driving Russian strategy, domestic political factors were also more significant. As the Russian leadership felt internally threatened by the growing opposition within the country, conflict in the Middle East highlighted the perceived flaws of the imposition of Western liberal democracy and the virtues of Russia’s own model of state-managed political order. There was, as such, a significant ideational and ideological dimension to the Russian response to the Arab Spring.
Keywords	Russia, Arab Spring, Syrian conflict, intervention, democracy
Journal	Journal of European Integration
Journal citation	37 (1), pp. 77-94
ISSN	0703-6337
Year	2015
Publisher	Taylor & Francis
Accepted author manuscript	Dannreuther_Jnl_European_Integration_2015.pdf
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2014.975990
Web address (URL)	http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07036337.2014.975990
Published	12 Dec 2014
Published in print	2015

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Russia and the Arab Spring: supporting the counter-revolution

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