Russia and Syria between the “spring” and the “winter”

Did you ever play a letter mosaic game, trying to build new words from one, which you started the game from? Reading the recent news about Syria and contemplating the expected developments in closest future , I was struck by the fact that the only state name, which could have a meaningful order of the letters in the name of “Syria”, is Russia (actually Rysia – is almost exactly how the Russia is articulated in Arabic and Turkic languages).  Given a meaningful spelling for Arabs is the order of consonants, two countries actually have the same letter in their names, but in a slightly different order (“s-r-y” and “r-s-y”).

After the Arab League extended the term of the observation mission in Syria but Gulf States withheld to send their members, the final withdrawal of the mission could have been easily predicted. The similarity between Libya and Syria cases has become more obvious with the exception of the stand Russia took on Kaddafi’s regime and that of President Assad.

BBC report commented on the suspension of the Arab League's observer mission and the followed upsurge in violence that even “more attention will be focused on the UN Security Council's efforts next week to get a tough resolution on Syria”. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16779203 . An Arab League report to the UN Security Council is expected on the upcoming Tuesday. However Russian foreign minister Lavrov expressed his surprise with the move by Arab League and the Russian attitude to a tough resolution and support to closer foreign engagement in Syria is seemed being unchanged.  

Four days ago on January 25^th the crowd in Cairo celebrated the start of Arab spring. We have alluded to the “global warming” connation of the spring on the Nile banks. http://blog-abunajla.blogspot.com/2011/12/arab-spring-and-global-warming.html .  Russia lives in the expectation of presidential elections on March 4, 2012. The spring is late in Russian climate and the beginning of March is still the time when the land is covered with snow, but the new tide of warming in Russia has started already in December. What can we expect in Russia in March and how the world will respond on that could affect the developments in Syria  in the range between the “S”pring and the winte”R”.