Forum Overview :: Balance of Power :: Yes and no.

[quote name="WITTGENSTEIN"]Syria is the only Russian-friendly place in the entire Mediterranean. If it ever looked like Russia might lose Tartus, then their involvement was inevitable. Next to the Crimean peninsula I can't think of a single more important place to them outside of Russian territory. You'd see the same thing happen if there were civil war in Poland, Russian involvement to protect Kaliningrad. The whole "He just made us look weak" thing though -- who fucking cares. It makes Turkey nervous and it's possible they could provoke an incident but they can't do shit and they're already ass-deep in low-intensity warfare with Ukraine. Christ, four of their cruise missiles fell out of the sky in Iran. [/quote]