Yes we will see.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/world/europe/russia-syria.html
First Russian Jets Leave Syria After Putin’s Withdrawal Order
MOSCOW — The first group of Russian fighter jets left Syria on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry said, a day after
President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the withdrawal of the “main part” of his country’s forces.
The jets flew home after the Russian Air Force contingent began loading equipment and making other technical preparations necessary to start the withdrawal, the ministry said in a statement.
The technical staff at the Hmeymim air base near Latakia, Syria, “began to prepare the aircraft for the long-range flights to the Russian Federation,” the ministry said in a statement on its website and on
Facebook.
The statement did not specify the number of aircraft.
Russia deployed about 50 fighter jets and attack helicopters to the base starting in September.
The process apparently started soon after Mr. Putin’s announcement, and Russian television broadcast pictures of soldiers loading heavy equipment onto giant cargo planes in the dark. The Defense Ministry later released
a video of Russian fighter jets flying home, and Su-34 warplanes landed soon after.
The Rossiya 24 satellite news channel broadcast live footage of the first two fighter jets landing at an air base in the southern city of Voronezh. The first pilot to emerge was repeatedly carried aloft by fellow soldiers on the ground, as a small crowd of well-wishers waved Russian flags and a brass band played.
Russia has also long maintained a naval repair and refueling station on the coast at Tartus, its sole overseas military outpost.
Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, said on Monday after the announcement that some forces would stay behind and that both facilities would remain in operation.
The deployment of Russian forces helped turn the tide of the war in favor of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. The sudden announcement of their withdrawal will put pressure on the government in Damascus to be more flexible in peace talks with the opposition.
Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations mediator for Syria, praised Mr. Putin in a statement on Tuesday, calling the withdrawal a “significant development” as peace talks resumed in Geneva.
Mr. de Mistura said he hoped the announcement would “have a positive impact on the progress of the negotiations in Geneva aimed at achieving a political solution of the Syrian conflict and a peaceful political transition in the country.”
Syrian opposition negotiators, who were to hold their first formal meeting with Mr. de Mistura, also expressed hope that the Russian pullout would give new impetus to the talks.
“We read it as a positive move because Assad is putting a stick in the wheel of the political process” that Russia, together with other powers, had set in motion, Farah Atassi, a member of the opposition’s High Negotiations Committee, said in Geneva. “This is a very political message to the Assad regime that he cannot rely on them all the time and has to play by the rules.”
Must have something to do with China. Guess they remember what the Chinese did than what Americans did.