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This was Russia today Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Source: Meduza

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What Moscow says with its silence

What does Russian diplomacy say when it’s mostly silent? Recent events concerning Azerbaijan, Syria, and Israel-Palestine have put the Kremlin’s foreign outreach efforts in the spotlight, raising questions about the extent of Moscow’s losses and setbacks. On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin met at the Kremlin with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the interim president of Syria, for the first time since al-Sharaa came to power. Just a few miles away, elsewhere in Moscow, former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was likely at one of his three luxury apartments, or maybe his family’s villa outside the city. If a recent report from Die Zeit is any indication, the ousted dictator was either tending to his dying wife or hours deep in video games.

Speaking to journalists, Putin declared that “neither political expediency nor vested interests” has ever driven Russia’s relations with Syria. That vow was no doubt tested when the meeting moved behind closed doors. According to Reuters, al-Sharaa came ready to discuss the continued presence of Russia’s naval base in Tartus‎ and its air base in Khmeimim, but he’s keen to bring home al-Assad to face a tribunal. In the meantime, the Kremlin hosts Syria’s new leadership while granting a safe haven to its old enemy.

Moscow has demonstrated similar diplomatic flexibility in Azerbaijan, where Putin recently visited and publicly apologized for accidentally shooting down an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet in December 2024. He strangely emphasized that the Russian anti-aircraft missile exploded near, not directly into, the plane (as the Pantsir-S1 is designed to do), and he also blamed Ukrainian attacks for instigating the mistake, but Putin’s remarks apparently satisfied Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

In an article for Carnegie Politika, Bashir Kitachaev argued that Russia essentially waited out the conflict with Azerbaijan, restoring bilateral cooperation once Aliyev had “reaped all the reputational dividends” of the tragedy. Moscow stood by while Aliyev boosted his engagement with Europe and America and even made a show of support for Ukraine. “For Russia,” wrote Kitachaev, “it was more important to preserve economic ties with Azerbaijan.” Despite 11 months of apparent tensions, “the conflict had no effect whatsoever on the economy.” Aliyev appears to have understood this dynamic as well, said Kitachaev, who pointed out that Baku “carefully avoided crossing Moscow’s red lines or accidentally causing an ‘offense’ that would force Putin to respond.” “In the end, nobody lost” — except for the numerous civilians caught up in the year-long dispute between Moscow and Baku.

Another Carnegie scholar offers sharply contrasting conclusions about Russia’s muted response to the peace framework that formally ended the Israel-Palestine war. For Carnegie senior fellow Alexander Baunov, Donald Trump’s triumph in the conflict is a fierce rejection of the worldview and “revolutionary ethic” Moscow has promoted globally to justify its own geopolitical pursuits. The Kremlin’s absence from a peace process orchestrated by the White House “creates an embarrassing situation for Moscow, which wants to lead or at least speak for the Global South.” To Baunov, provisional peace in Palestine doesn’t reflect pragmatic patience on Russia’s part; rather, it exposes Russia’s foreign policy as fundamentally inflexible. “Putin’s intransigence,” he warns, “causes genuine bewilderment and exposes his glaringly erratic behavior and inadequacy as a responsible global player.” 

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Today’s reporting from Meduza

  • 🗞️ Modi’s promise, the Nord Stream bombers, and suspicious plates: Meduza breaks down today’s biggest Russia-related news stories, October 15, 2025 (7 minutes)
  • 🇺🇸 The Kremlin’s latest red line: Trump may be close to sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. Could they change the course of the war? (9 minutes)
  • 🛂 ‘Demonstrably fake’: Odesa’s mayor had a Russian passport — but not the one published by the SBU, The Insider says (3 minutes)
  • 🇪🇪 Estonian defense minister comments on recent appearance of armed Russian men near border (3 minutes)
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