Even before today’s assassination of key Syrian officials, the Assad regime was starting to look doomed—yet Russia resisted international attempts to abet its departure. Conventional wisdom attributed this resistance to Russia’s lucrative arms trade with Syria and its fear of losing its Syrian naval base. But Miriam Elder, the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, takes a different view. She spoke with me this morning, from Moscow, after news of the Syrian assassinations broke:

You can watch the whole conversation on BhTV.

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