Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Moscow, Sept. 21, 2015. (Israeli Embassy in Russia/Flash90)
(JTA) — As a defiant Russia again flexes military muscles in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, Cold War analogies are, perhaps, unavoidable.
The deployment last month of Russian warplanes in Syria laid bare Moscow’s readiness to use force to punish leaders who would challenge its authority — as in Ukraine, from which it annexed Crimea in March 2014 — and to defend its strategic allies, like Syria’s embattled president, Bashar Assad.
During the Cold War, Kremlin intervention generally meant bad news for …read more
Source: JTA
