The Kremlin tries save the furnitureafter the harsh geopolitical setback which represents the overthrow of his ally, the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Official Russian sources assured last Sunday that they were in contact with representatives of “the Syrian armed opposition“, whose leaders would have guaranteed Moscow the security of Russian military bases on the Mediterranean coast of Syria, specifically the Hmeimim military airfield, near Latakia, and the port of Tartus. Precisely, the semantic modifications contained in this sentence and in other public statements about the situation in Syria constitute an additional sign that the Russian authorities are trying to reach an agreement with the country’s new leadership: in the eyes of Russian officials, the Syrian fighters have ceased to be “terrorists“to become”armed opposition“.
One of the winks most notable from Russia towards Syrian opponents was lived precisely in Moscow. Just as it happened in the legation in Madrid On Sunday, the flag of the Assad regime was lowered from the embassy headquarters in Moscow, and the revolutionary insignia was raised in its place, something for which it was necessary to have the approval of the Russian authorities. In addition, according to the official Russian agency TASS, diplomatic personnel were working inside. “normally”.
He Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement ensuring that the military facilities in Syria They were on a “high alert” regime, but there were no perceived “threats” to their safety. Despite these words, the military observers They have noted signs of evacuation, with a greater movement of cargo planes such as Iliusin Il-76 or Antonov An-24 that could be responsible for removing military material. In addition to the two bases mentioned, Russia maintained a presence at the Qamishli airport, an enclave in the homonymous city under control of the Syrian regime until now, and in other military infrastructure spread throughout Syrian territory. Due to the war in Ukraine, Moscow does not seem to have any troops to deploy to guarantee your defensebefore which it depends on the goodwill of the new rulers of the country so that their military infrastructure in Syrian territory can continue operating as before.
Insufficient gestures?
And the gestures you are making towards them may not be enough, perhaps not now but yes. medium or long term. Ignacio Álvarez Ossorio, professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Complutense University of Madrid, remembers that the Sukhoi planes took off from the Hmeimim base and, until very recently, bombed orcivil objectives in towns under rebel control of the Idleb province. The Institute of War Studies (ISW), the laboratory of ideas with the most valued analyzes on ongoing wars, remembers that rebel factions are heterogeneous, and that it was not “clear” who the Russian interlocutors in this matter. “Even if it maintains some of its bases (the fall of Assad) is a major geopolitical loss for Moscow… it will be always at the expense of groups that in the past he called terrorists”.
Russian military installations in the Arab country constitute a fundamental link so that the Kremlin can show military power, beyond its borders. According to the ISW, thanks to the Tartus naval base, Russia “can project its power in the Mediterranean and threaten NATO’s southern flank”, while the aerodrome Hmeimim has established itself as a fundamental scale to guarantee the rotations of Russian contractors from Africa Corps, a militia formerly known as Wagner, in allied African countries such as Mali o Central African Republic.
Subscribe to continue reading
