Luke Coffey: Russia’s emerging naval presence in the Mediterranean
Russian warship BSF Tsezar Kunikov 158 passes the Bosphorus Strait off Istanbul on her way to the eastern Mediterranean sea on May 19, 2016.
The centenary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement this month has focused attention on the division of the Middle East into French and British zones of influence after World War I. Less well known, however, is the Constantinople Agreement made a year before the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Under this, the UK and France agreed to give Russia control of the Turkish Straits as well as Constantinople, then capital of the Ottoman Empire, in the event of a Triple Entente victory in World War I.
