Is Russia abandoning Syria's Assad?

Moscow says it will accept Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's resignation, if that's what Syrians want. But Russia might just be thinking of its own interests

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad delivers a speech at the parliament in Damascus on June 3: Russia may very well be tiring of A
(Image credit: AP Photo/SANA)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his country would continue to block any effort at the United Nations to force Syrian President Bashar al-Assad out of power, but that Moscow would accept the departure of its longtime Middle East ally if that is what Syrians want. Speaking two days after U.N. cease-fire monitors came under fire on the way to the scene of the latest civilian massacre, Lavrov said the situation in Syria was "getting more alarming," and he reiterated his call for an international conference on supporting envoy Kofi Annan's failing peace plan. With international pressure mounting to end the killing, is Russia preparing to cut Assad loose, or is it just trying to buy him more time?

Russia's support for Assad is faltering: This won't change anything immediately, says Rick Moran at The American Thinker, but it's a start. The Syrian National Council won't negotiate with the regime until Assad is gone, and Russia knows he's not going to "simply give up power and go into exile." Still, the fact that Moscow is finally willing to talk regime change "is a psychological blow to the Assad regime" because it means "their bulwark against the rest of the world" is crumbling.

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