In Syria, some people die, some people shop

February 2012.

Hundreds of Syrian people, most of them civilians, died since Russia and China put a veto in the UN, blocking any condemnation of the regime in Damas. Division of States won over unity. It is like reviving the Cold War, a period of time when Russia wanted to demonstrate its strength by all means, including silly ones. The most striking point is not the veto of Moscow and Beijing, but their isolation of the Syrian question. At the Security Council, 13 voices over 15 voted in favour of a nuanced condemnation, but still a condemnation, of the regime of Assad. Not only the group of Bric (Brazil, Russia, China and India) burst, but the Arab world also supported the humanitarian resolution brought by occidentals and were outraged by the Russian and Chinese behaviour.

Why does Moscou chose to be isolated? Of course, Poutine can count on the fact that Assad’s regime (with the help of his Russian and Iranian allies) will crush the opposition, under armed and divided. Poutine can consider, wrongly, that the popular uprising in Syria is anything but a western conspiracy aimed at weakening Syria. One day, Poutine may pay the price of his paranoia, not only in Syria, but in the entire Arab world.

 If Russia struggles to realize the Arab Spring actually happened, it is also because Russians have been demonstrating for months against Poutine, even within Russia. A few weeks ago, Muscovite demonstrators were taking to the streets waving banners tagged “Moubarak, Kadhafi, Poutine”. It sounded like a warning of a new kind. Poutine’s party will certainly be elected one more time next month, but his power is undermined and Poutine himself is increasingly contested. A weak regime, weighting as heavy as it can to save a dying regime only has the power to harm. Russia can provide to Assad a few months of respite, but Russia can’t save Assad.

The double veto of Russia and China (the latter following the former and ready to find out any diplomatic ruse existing) push the international community, behind the UN, to show firmness and imagination. First of all, there is a need to harden economic sanctions against Damas, and then to keep on pressuring Moscow and Beijing. Why? In order to convince them that another solution would not necessarily mean that their interest in Syria will be endangered in the long term.

Is there any need to go further? Is it the role of the UN to overtly arm rebels, establishing humanitarian areas and pushing the several branches of the Syrian opposition to unify? Syria is neither Libya geographically speaking, politically or militarily.

Today, a president is massacring his citizens. During that time Asma, Bachar Al Assad’s wife, shops and buys Louboutin shoes. Like the French humorist Stephane Guillon puts it, what is the point of spending a fortune on shoes because their soles are red? Asma could, instead, buy regular shoes and walk on the street. With all the blood wasted because of her husband, it would not take long before her soles get red.