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Yury Barmin is an expert at the Russian International Affairs Council covering the Middle East and North Africa, and Moscow’s policy towards the region including its strategy in Syria and Libya. Yury also works as a risk consultant whose work focuses on issues related to the Middle East and Russia’s positioning there. He holds an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and his dissertation looked into the failed Arab Spring protests in Bahrain and Kuwait. He is interested in the politics of the Gulf and the ties that exist between Russia’s North Caucasus and the GCC Monarchies.
The image of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov steaming across the Mediterranean on its way to the Syrian shore became one of the symbols of Moscow’s military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. When the aircraft carrier completed its mission in Syria in January this year and made a surprise port call in eastern Libya, analysts immediately suggested that Libya may become another country where Moscow will project its military power.
