While global attention remains focused on Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, Yemen, Syria, and the tectonic shifts Israel has triggered across the region, the deeper strategic transformation is being overlooked: the steady dismantling of Russia’s presence in the Middle East.

As is well known, Russia re-entered the Middle East following the Arab Spring of 2011. Gradually and methodically, it established footholds and alliances across the region, anchored in a strategic partnership with Syria, Iran and their proxies – both conventional players, and in Syria’s case, also non-conventional.