The Syrian economy has effectively ceased to function, and President Bashar Assad's regime is almost entirely dependent on loans from Iran and aid from the Russian Federation.Economic studies by the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and independent economists paint a grim picture: Gross Domestic Product is now half of what it was three years ago, according to the IMF, oil production has effectively ground to a halt, inflation is now at 50 percent, exports and imports have reduced by 90 percent and unemployment is at 50 percent."Syria as it was will never exist again. The economy will be smaller. The population will be smaller," said Bassel Kaghadou, director of the U.N. program National Agenda for the Future of Syria, in a statement released on Nov. 21."The government doesn't have any meaningful income anymore," warns Jihad Yazigi, editor-in-chief of the economic newsletter Syria Report, in an article published on Dec. 20. Yazigi said, "State investment in infrastructure has declined to virtually zero and salaries have remained stagnant."The government has had to scale back subsidies for citizens for goods ranging from water to heating to oil over the last six months, Yazigi said.A delegation of Syrian officials visited Moscow on Dec. 17, 2014, to request a $3 billion loan. Russia's aid to the country has, however, mostly consisted in the supply of arms in contracts that have earned Russian firms about $4 billion in funds supplied by Iran in 2013. Russia is also concerned with the preservation of its naval base in Tartus, according to a Nov. 27 report in the International Policy Digest.On May 27, 2013, the Syrian central bank announced that Iran was providing the country with a $4 billion credit. And in December 2014, Syria reportedly requested an additional loan of the same size."Needless to say, the Assad regime is now dominated by Iran," says the London-based Syria analyst Halia Diyab, in an interview with Anadolu Agency. "Not only does Iran have tremendous influence over the regime's decisions, but it also controls armed forces in the field that fight for the regime, and it funds the Hezbollah forces in Syria that are allied with the regime. Tehran is well-placed to impose its will on the regime."The Iran-Hezbollah-Assad regime alliance is critical for Hezbollah. "Without the ability to operate within Syria, Iranian support to Hezbollah becomes much more difficult and risks interdiction; Hezbollah's own military capabilities and readiness would suffer without access to this military and financial assistance. Third, the group also seeks to prevent the emergence of a Sunni-dominated regime in Syria should Assad fall," writes Institute for the Study of War analyst Marisa Sullivan in a report published in May 2014."Assad has sold Syria to the Iranians," former Syrian army Gen. Manaf Tlass said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Dec. 21. "Bashar never opted at any time for serious and credible reforms, but instead chose to destroy the country rather than lose power," Tlass said. There is a deep frustration within Syrian society that the main actors in the armed conflict are not concerned about the needs and priorities of the people, explains the Syrian Center for Policy Research, in a report published in May 2014.While both Russia and Iran have protested their desire to keep Assad in power in Syria, some analysts think that they may choose to preserve the regime without the current president. "The peace negotiations between some factions of the opposition and the regime, which are to take place in Moscow in January, could provide an exit strategy for Assad," Diyab suggests. "The presence of opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib at these talks is significant, as he is one of the few in the opposition who have proposed a negotiated peace with the regime. It would be much easier to reach an agreement on such an arrangement if Assad were not part of it. It's not clear how long Moscow and Tehran will continue to fund the Assad regime under the present conditions."However, the president of the Syrian National Coalition – the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group – said it had not received any formal invitation from Moscow. A large number of the opposition factions do not plan to take part in the Moscow talks.