If Bashar al-Assad is still the President of Syria today it is because of the support of Russia and China. Syrians during the Arab Spring expressed a loud no to the Assad dynasty and asked for Bashar al-Assad’s departure. Backed by these powers Bashar al-Assad remains in power regardless of the ensuing armed conflict that has reduced half of Syria into rubble. Assad is holding elections which in the context of the on-going violence amount to nothing short of a sinister simulation of democracy. Sam Hamad had this story in The New Arab:

For this week’s presidential elections in Baathist Syria, Bashar al-Assad is putting on something of a show.

On the streets of Damascus, supporters of Assad regularly parade wielding placards emblazoned with his image. Loyalist accounts on social media have been mobilised to push the “Sawa” (together) hashtag, depicting Assad as the unifying “saviour” figure, without whom Syria would not exist. 

Of course, in the real world, beyond the simulated reality projected by Assad, Syria does not exist in the form it did prior to the catastrophic war that Assad unleashed on pro-democracy Syrians in 2011 and for the decade to come. 

Read the full story here.