Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
He is not alone, but he desperatly seeks friends on the international stage.
Venezuela, Syria, Iran, and maybe soon Cuba.
The list of Putin’s friends on the global stage is shrinking, and according to a former military attaché in Moscow, Putin does not have any strong, real friends left.
In an exclusive interview with Libertatea, John Foreman, former British military attaché to Moscow and Kyiv, explains that, in his opinion, the fall of the above-mentioned regimes has exposed how weakened Russia has become after four years of war in Ukraine.
Losing strategic ground
Foreman highlights the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria as a clear example of how Putin’s global authority has been weakened.
For years, Russia supported the Assad regime against the Syrian opposition, but it was clearly not enough, as the regime has now fallen and Assad has reportedly fled to Russia.
Looking at the world today, the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran show that even if a country or regime is allied with Putin, it is not enough to protect them.
“The whole world can see how limited Russia is,” Foreman told Libertatea when speaking about the conflict in the Middle East.
But what about China and North Korea?
Foreman emphasizes that Putin is still not alone on the global stage.
China has long been accused of supporting the Russian war effort in Ukraine, and North Korea has even provided personnel as well as munitions to the Russian war machine.
In the UN, Russia also gets support from African nations like Zimbabwe and South Africa, meaning it is clearly not alone.
But the pool of friends is shrinking, and Foreman believes Putin is desperate to find more allies on the international stage.
“I don’t think he has any real or strong friends at all,” the former military attaché concludes.
Sources: Libertatea, CNN, Reuters, RBC-Ukraine, The Kyiv Independent
