Russia withdraws its remaining personnel from Syria

[bsruzm]

''Russia has evacuated the last of its personnel from Syria, including from its Mediterranean naval base in Tartus, in a move that appears to underline Moscow's mounting concerns about the escalating crisis.

Russian media reported on Wednesday that they had confirmed the evacuation with officials in the country's military and foreign ministry. But there was no official confirmation of a claim from rebel Free Syrian Army sources that a Russian plane had been shot down and its pilot captured in the western Aleppo area.

The effective closure of the Tartus base would be a significant loss, though a 16-ship naval task force is still in the eastern Mediterranean. The base is Russia's only foothold in the Middle East.

Neighbouring Cyprus has, however, made its ports available to the Russian fleet. Cypriot media have reported that the government may allow Russia to use its base at Paphos to host military aircraft.

News that Russian forces had pulled out of Syria came in an interview with Mikhail Bogdanov, the deputy foreign minister, in an interview with the newspaper al-Hayat last week.

"Today, the Russian defence ministry does not have a single person in Syria," he said. He described Tartus as a "technical facility for maintaining ships sailing in the Mediterranean."

The Vedomosti newspaper quoted an unnamed defence ministry official as saying: "We have neither servicemen nor civilians in Syria any more. Or Russian military instructors assigned to units of the Syrian regular army, for that matter."

But Vedomosti said the decision to remove defence ministry personnel did not include technical experts employed by the Syrian government to train its army to use Russian-issued weapons.

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Russia Today, the Kremlin's English-language propaganda channel, said: "The withdrawal was prompted not only by the increased risks caused by the ongoing military conflict, but also by the fact that in the current conditions any incident involving Russian servicemen would likely have some unfavourable reaction from the international community."

Russia has been evacuating its citizens from Syria for weeks. Bogdanov said that about 30,000 Russians live throughout the country, some in rebel-held areas. The Interfax news agency reported that 128 Russians and citizens of other former Soviet republics left Syria on Wednesday on planes that had delivered what was described as humanitarian supplies the previous day.

Russia remains Assad's last major ally, alongside Iran.''

Russia withdraws its remaining personnel from Syria | World news | The Guardian

 

[mike2000 is back]

''Russia has evacuated the last of its personnel from Syria, including from its Mediterranean naval base in Tartus, in a move that appears to underline Moscow's mounting concerns about the escalating crisis.

Russian media reported on Wednesday that they had confirmed the evacuation with officials in the country's military and foreign ministry. But there was no official confirmation of a claim from rebel Free Syrian Army sources that a Russian plane had been shot down and its pilot captured in the western Aleppo area.

The effective closure of the Tartus base would be a significant loss, though a 16-ship naval task force is still in the eastern Mediterranean. The base is Russia's only foothold in the Middle East.

Neighbouring Cyprus has, however, made its ports available to the Russian fleet. Cypriot media have reported that the government may allow Russia to use its base at Paphos to host military aircraft.

News that Russian forces had pulled out of Syria came in an interview with Mikhail Bogdanov, the deputy foreign minister, in an interview with the newspaper al-Hayat last week.

"Today, the Russian defence ministry does not have a single person in Syria," he said. He described Tartus as a "technical facility for maintaining ships sailing in the Mediterranean."

The Vedomosti newspaper quoted an unnamed defence ministry official as saying: "We have neither servicemen nor civilians in Syria any more. Or Russian military instructors assigned to units of the Syrian regular army, for that matter."

But Vedomosti said the decision to remove defence ministry personnel did not include technical experts employed by the Syrian government to train its army to use Russian-issued weapons.

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Russia Today, the Kremlin's English-language propaganda channel, said: "The withdrawal was prompted not only by the increased risks caused by the ongoing military conflict, but also by the fact that in the current conditions any incident involving Russian servicemen would likely have some unfavourable reaction from the international community."

Russia has been evacuating its citizens from Syria for weeks. Bogdanov said that about 30,000 Russians live throughout the country, some in rebel-held areas. The Interfax news agency reported that 128 Russians and citizens of other former Soviet republics left Syria on Wednesday on planes that had delivered what was described as humanitarian supplies the previous day.

Russia remains Assad's last major ally, alongside Iran.''

Russia withdraws its remaining personnel from Syria | World news | The Guardian

Interesting. ....

 

[LordTyrannus]

Russia tried to help Syrian regime to install peace and prosperity in their country again. but Assad the monster was just to dumb to make a peace deal with the rebels.

Now they will hunt him down like a rabbid dog.

 

[U8200]

Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin, is unlikely to drop its support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, even though it distrusts him and recognizes that his situation is not good, experts told The Jerusalem Post.

A Saudi-backed paper quoted unidentified sources in a report on Sunday that said that Russia is abandoning Assad’s regime and removing most officials and military experts.

Nikolay Kozhanov, a non-resident fellow at Carnegie Moscow Center and a visiting fellow at Chatham House London, told the Post on Sunday that, while Sunni media reports such as the one in Asharq Al-Awsat should be taken with a “grain of salt,” “Russia does not trust Assad 100 percent.”

Kozhanov attributes this to two main reasons: the first being that Assad had previously sought a rapprochement with the West and only after the civil war began did the Syrian president turn his attention to his second choice of an alliance with Russia.

Secondly, Russia had asked Assad to get rid of Chechen fighters that had sought refuge in Syria, but he refused. There is even a rumor going around, noted Kozhanov, that these same Chechens are now fighting against the Syrian regime.

“Russia is not fighting for Assad as person, but for the regime” so that jihadists will not overwhelm the country, asserted Kozhanov.

With the rise of Islamic State and the current state of the civil war, Russian-Syrian relations are going through a “stress test,” he continued, adding that he has heard some Russian officials and even Syrians voice their disappointment in Assad’s stubbornness.

Asked if at some point the Russian government could stop supporting the Syrian regime, Kozhanov responded that Putin’s government will not likely pull its support for Assad, but could at some point withdraw “personal support” if there would be an alternative that would guarantee the continuation of the secular regime.

However, at this point, Russia sees Syria as a bulwark against the regional rise of Islamists.

Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and the director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for Analysis of Global Security, told the Post that the Russians are realists and they have people on the ground that are following developments very closely.

Cohen attributes the evacuation of some Russian diplomats and their families to the deterioration of Assad’s position.

Russia may lower the profile of its presence in terms of the number of Russian citizens residing in Syria, but in terms of military aid and other support, “things will continue as usual.”

“It is important for the Kremlin to demonstrate that it is a reliable ally and support the regime until it collapses,” asserted Cohen.

The Russians clearly view the non-Sunni regimes in the region as their potential allies, though relations with Egypt are even more important than those with Syria, because it is seen as a stable anti-fundamentalist country with important economic and historical ties.

“The Russians see the Eastern Mediterranean as an external tier of power projection away from its borders,” extending into Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran, said Cohen, adding that it protects its borders with a “forward defense” of sorts. Greece, Cyprus, Syria and Egypt are Russia’s priorities in developing naval and military presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, he said.

Yuri Teper, a Russian expert and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Manchester, told the Post that he has seen nothing in the Russian media about the country pulling support for Assad, but only reports about the removal of the families of diplomats.

Teper, who is also a fellow at the Israeli Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, said that to the contrary, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had said that his country is ready to fully meet the military needs of Syria and Iraq in order to ensure the expulsion of jihadists from their territories.

“I would estimate Russians would stop their support only when they are decisively sure Assad’s regime has no chance to survive,” he continued.

Russia does not see any viable alternative to Assad and so “I do not see any change in its policy there,” he asserted.

However, Teper continued, “I wouldn’t rule out that they might have started to prepare for the day after Assad.”


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Surely by prolonging the conflict, Russia has made Syria a magnet for Jihad instead?

 

[LordTyrannus]

Russia does not give a phuck about west and their abnorm creation jihadists. It was CIA and USA who financed and trained Al Qaida in afganistan, the mother of all jihadist groups.

Russia only was bound to former treaties with syrian regime,signed in the 80s.

Russia does not meddle in internal affairs of failed states like marocco, syria and others.

 

[BHAN85]

Why Russian gov doesnt even pretend when betray an ally?

Russian, US positions on Syria are getting closer, Lavrov says
Yahoo News UK-28 may. 2015

 

[Superboy]

Assad your days are numbered. Die you monster.

 

[IR-TR]

Wow, a Saudi backed newspaper. Besides, Russia only gives political support and spare parts. Iran does the heavy lifting.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Wow, a Saudi backed newspaper. Besides, Russia only gives political support and spare parts. Iran does the heavy lifting.

Which "Saudi Arabian backed newspaper"? The Guardian? Really? The same newspaper (like other trashy UK newspapers) that posts anti-KSA/Arab/Muslim/MENA material on a weekly basis?

Anyway Russia is on its knees economically due to all the sanctions and the oil prices.

There are rumors of Russia and the GCC trying to improve relations which I would welcome as Russia has largely been a friend of Arabs historically and they never did the GCC any harm. All the disagreements are limited to politics in the MENA region and Russia is probably always cautious about "Western allies" but KSA is not really a "Western ally" in the Israeli/Turkish sense. Russia knows this.

 

[airmarshal]

Assad your days are numbered. Die you monster.

And what is the alternative?

The terrorists unleashed by the West will ruin Syria. The country will fall apart and the terrorists will reign supreme. There will total chaos. If thats the objective, then Assad days being numbered is a great news.

But I m concerned. Concerned for Syria and its people. Assad at least can hold the country together. Not Assad the person but the regime.

West has already given Middle East enough gifts in terms of destroying Libya and Iraq.

 

[Superboy]

And what is the alternative?

The terrorists unleashed by the West will ruin Syria. The country will fall apart and the terrorists will reign supreme. There will total chaos. If thats the objective, then Assad days being numbered is a great news.

But I m concerned. Concerned for Syria and its people. Assad at least can hold the country together. Not Assad the person but the regime.

West has already given Middle East enough gifts in terms of destroying Libya and Iraq.

Assad will die just like Gaddafi. Then ISIS and Nusra and Islamic Front will take over Syria and fight each other forever just like in Libya. Syria is finished.

 

[IR-TR]

Which "Saudi Arabian backed newspaper"? The Guardian? Really? The same newspaper (like other trashy UK newspapers) that posts anti-KSA/Arab/Muslim/MENA material on a weekly basis?

Anyway Russia is on its knees economically due to all the sanctions and the oil prices.

There are rumors of Russia and the GCC trying to improve relations which I would welcome as Russia has largely been a friend of Arabs historically and they never did the GCC any harm. All the disagreements are limited to politics in the MENA region and Russia is probably always cautious about "Western allies" but KSA is not really a "Western ally" in the Israeli/Turkish sense. Russia knows this.

Read the 'source' that the Guardian quoted.

 

[LordTyrannus]

Assad will die just like Gaddafi. Then ISIS and Nusra and Islamic Front will take over Syria and fight each other forever just like in Libya. Syria is finished.

No, Assad will flee to moscow. And build up a resistance against Islamic state.

Russia is a orthodox country and will protect minorities. Russia is a great country with hard working great people.

Unlike west,which consists of cretins and mental midgets.

 

[IR1907]

No, Assad will flee to moscow. And build up a resistance against Islamic state.

Russia is a orthodox country and will protect minorities. Russia is a great country with hard working great people.

Unlike west,which consists of cretins and mental midgets.

Who says that Assad will go to Russia ?

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Read the 'source' that the Guardian quoted.

Al-Hayat? It's a pan-Arab newspaper. One of the leading ones actually.

I think it is obvious that Russia has much more to worry about right now than a Al-Assad regime that they can replace with someone else elsewhere.

If Russia were smart they would try to extend their hands to the GCC and other anti-Assad Arab countries. 1000 more reasons for doing that than supporting a failed genocidal regime in a failed country (Syria).

I guess that they are still butthurt about our support for Chechnya and Muslims in Russia.

Anyway regardless of what they will do, the genocidal Al-Assad regime will collapse.