Based on his remarks at the South Caucasus Security Forum 2017 in Tbilisi, RSC Senior Analyst David Shahnazaryan was quoted by Joshua Kucera in a piece for Eurasianet on the wider impact of the U. S. missile strikes on Syria, as a sign that the new Trump administration is willing to act tough against Russia. Shahnazaryan was quoted as saying that “I think what happened April 7 in Syria, the launching of the Tomahawk missiles, changed the situation very dramatically,” and adding that “the Kremlin now must be much more careful” and contending that “maybe this will slow down, a little bit, the possibility of another war” in the Caucasus.