Bear Hug

Russia is shows every intention of expanding its conflict with the United States and NATO to the Middle East. President Assad just completed a trip to Moscow, where he met with Medvedev and Putin. Assad was not especially coy about the purpose of the meetings: "Of course military and technical cooperation is the main issue. Weapons purchases are very important...I think we should speed it up."

Fresh on the heels of Assad's visit, newspapers have reported that Hezbollah has struck a deal with Russia to purchase new anti-tank and anti-air missiles. Assad also said that he was willing to discuss placing Russian-built missile defense systems on Syrian territory.