Fears Russia is aiming to ‘federalise’ Syria are groundless. Here’s why.
The Russian proposal to create ‘de-escalation areas’ in Syria has triggered further fears of Syria’s fragmentation, with the ‘de-escalation areas’ seen as providing the building blocks for the ‘federalisation’ of Syria supposedly envisaged by the draft constitution for Syria which the Russians circulated to the participants of the Astana conference a few weeks ago.
These fears are by no means unfounded. There are many factors within Syria that work against the reunification of the country into a unitary state. However I doubt the Russians are one of them.
