With its devastating show of force in Syria’s civil war, Russia has reasserted itself as a military power in the Middle East. It’s also put Russians in the region at mortal risk, as the Dec. 19 assassination of Andrey Karlov, Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, proves. Karlov is a casualty in the Kremlin’s quest for power and influence in the region. Karlov’s murder—by a gunman who screamed opposition to the siege of the Syrian city of Aleppo before he himself was killed—is likely to draw Ankara and Moscow closer because of shared security concerns over the spillover of the Syrian conflict. Vladimir Putin’s regional clout goes far beyond Syria, however, and is aimed at restoring the influence that waned after the fall of the […]