expressing a political opinion. "Why did the majority of people vote for the draft constitution proposed by the authorities?" How on earth do you know that they did? By watching the state media? Even they couldn't entirely hide the empty polling booths. "Why, after all, have most Syrian soldiers remained loyal to their commanders?" Again, if I were a Syrian soldier who knew that disloyalty would probably mean torture and death for myself and my family I would probably be "loyal" too. "If fear is the only explanation, then why did it fail to help other authoritarian rulers?" It did, and it does. Authoritarian rulers survive for decade after decade. My Lavrov consistently defends the Syrian goverment's line that all stories of massacres, rapes, murders, tortures, destruction of property, killing of children by snipers and all the other daily stream of monstrous crimes against humanity are fairy tales. Except the ones commited by the "terrorists". Steve3007: "...how [can] the government manage to stay in power without Loading comments... Mr. Lavrov is not only a brilliant diplomat but a statesman with a clear vision of world problems amd how to resolve them. He has converted Russian foreign policy into a force for stability and international security. How nice it would be if some of the actors in the Syrian crisis would follow his lead instead of literaly digging their own grave by encouraging and arming the rebels. Indeed, Russia knows what the real cost of revolution is. It is still suffering