Since last week when Russia began bombing targets inside Syria, Western media has been overflowing with articles about the crimes of Russian imperialism in Syria. But, as Hamid Alizadeh explains, the idea put forward that “moderate” rebels are being bombed by ruthless Russians raises more questions than it answers.

This week, for the first time in ten years, Vladimir Putin attended the UN general assembly, followed by a closed door meeting with Barack Obama. Only one month ago such a meeting would have seemed highly unlikely. The significant increase of a Russian military presence in Syria over the past month has changed the situation.

With a hugely increased turnout of 77% (10 points more than in 2012), the Catalan elections gave an overall majority of seats to pro-independence parties. However, these parties did not get an overall majority of votes. The results showed the strength of the pro-independence feeling.