Though the United States reached a deal with Russia on Syria, Washington has not necessarily dropped its plans to impose a regime change in Damascus, a senior Russian lawmaker said, RIA Novosti reported Sept. 15.
Despite ongoing demographic, economic and geopolitical problems, Russia is using every tool at its disposal to reassert itself in the former
Soviet Union. Rather than taking back its former position as the patron state of many Central Asian, Caucasus and Eastern European countries, the Kremlin is attempting to exert softer control over its former republics.
