Russia’s Strategy in Syria May Have Just Gotten More Complicated

ISIS terrorists claiming responsibility for taking down a Russian passenger plane over Egypt could complicate Moscow's involvement in the Middle East.

So far, Russia has focused most of its involvement in Syria on hitting rebel targets to shore up territory for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But as ISIS affiliates in Egypt's Sinai peninsula insist that they took down a plane carrying 224 people as an attack on “Russian crusaders,” experts say Putin might have little choice but to get even more deeply involved in the Middle East.

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“Egypt has been one of the few, if not only, Arab states that has supported Russian intervention in Syria,” Boris Zilberman, an expert on the Middle East and Russia and the deputy director of congressional relations at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told Business Insider in an email. “Putin has made it a priority to strengthen cooperation and economic/military/energy ties with Egypt.”

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