Today came the shock announcement that Putin has ordered the withdrawal of most of the Russian strike force in Syria commencing on March 15, 2016.
In contrast to the weeks before the start of the intervention, when multiple observers including Stratfor observed signs of an imminent intervention, this has come as a complete surprise. Many ill thought out explanations have been rushed out.
(1) The more rhetorical anti-Russian voices in the West and the pro-Western Russian liberal opposition claim that this was on account of Russia’s unwinding economy. No matter that Russia’s budget deficit is at less than 3% of GDP, comes on top of negligible government debt levels, and the mounting evidence its recession has bottomed anyway.
(2) Fervent Assad and SAA supporters of 2015, who the year before had condemned Putin’s “betrayal” of Novorossiya, now rushed to condemn yet another “zrada.”
(3) Maybe Borovoy’s ultimatum to Putin was successful after all? /s
https://twitter.com/UnkawaiiPigDog/status/709505183252942848
The real reasons that this happened are rather more prosaic.
Freezing Syria
The most obvious and indeed tautological one is that there is now a ceasefire between the government and the FSA that to considerable surprise is actually being more or less observed.
First off, as The Saker points out, Russia’s goals in Syria were always limited: Not to outright win the war but to “stabilize the legitimate authority and create conditions for a political compromise.” This is a consistent goal that Russia has pursued from the earliest stages of the Syrian conflict, in contrast to Western politicians who have on at three separate points – the start of the uprising itself, the Ghouta false flag chemical weapons attacks, and as recently as the summer of the last year – plotted to lay the grounds for a no fly zone, which in practice translates into Assad’s forcible ouster and the transformation of Syria into either an Islamic State or a patchwork quilt of warlords. Moreover, Russia’s intervention was time-bounded from the outset. The influential Russian politician Alexey Pushkov had cited a figure of three to four months last October, while Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov talked of “not much longer than a few months.” The five and a half months of Russian air strikes fell within these projections, and avoided dragging Russia into a deeper quagmire that its supporters dreaded and its opponents anticipated.
Second, as I anticipated, Russian airpower as well as additional support in the form of training and equipment – for instance, you can observe in conflict videos that the SAA forces now tend to be much better outfitted, including with body armor that was almost universally absent half a year ago – has decisively swung the balance of military power across multiple fronts in favor of the government. Contrary to the pattern of slow retreat and periodic collapses that marked the conflict in prior years, now the SAA is on the advance in many areas and even the occasional local defeat such as the Islamic State’s takeover of the Khanasser road to Aleppo this February was reversed within days, whereas in previous years these sorts of setbacks tended to snowball into collapses across entire fronts. The insurgency has thus been “persuaded” into acknowledging that there is no longer a Final Victory in sight for them and negotiating with Syria’s legitimate authorities as a prerequisite of maintaining their “moderate” status. Considering Russia’s objectives as outlined above, Putin is quite accurate to say that they have been “generally accomplished.”
Otherwise, a tallying of Russia’s strategic gains minus losses reveals its final score to be almost entirely positive.
On the plus side, we have:
(1) The Khmeimim airbase, which will continue to host a few air assets as well as drones to monitor the ceasefire, together with the expanded naval base at Latakia. Should the ceasefire break down, it will be possible to rebase and restock within a few days.
(2) The cost of the Russian intervention was very low. The liberal Russian RBK media network has estimated it at around $2.5+ million per day; defense analyst Jane’s gives an upper bound of $4 million a day. Even taking the latter figure and multiplying it by 180 days yields a total cost of less than $1 billion. Military casualties number firmly in the single digits. For this very reasonable price, the Russian Air Force got the opportunity to practice “live,” show off its toys to potential buyers, and get rid of its surplus bombs US Gulf War-style.
(3) Taking air assets out of Syria removes the potential Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads in the form of the Turkish Air Force and an increasingly unstable Erdogan. Russia never had more than a dozen air superiority fighters in Khmeimim; even if they were one-for-one superior to Turkish F-15Ds, and regardless of the S-400 guarding them and the Moskva cruiser parked off the Syrian coast, they would have stood no chance in the event that Turkey decided to erase Russian airpower in Syria – thus leaving Russia in the unenviable situation of choosing between a humiliating climbdown or escalating to all out war with a powerful NATO country of “of which no one can predict the ultimate consequences” (to paraphrase a contemporary commentator on the Russian Empire stumbling into war against Japan in 1904).
(4) Finally, despite the increasingly demented ravings of neocon trolls such as Michael Weiss to shift the media narrative:
Weiss losing control over his conspiracy theories—US is Putin proxy; Putin is ISIS air force—>US is ISIS air force!! pic.twitter.com/M7f9gWiH1x
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) January 27, 2016
… and of General Breedlove’s (any relation to General Buck Turgidson?) attempts to lay the blame for Merkel’s mishandling of the refugee crisis on Russia’s actions in Syria, Western audiences have become increasingly reluctant to swallow the bait offered up by their elites. After all, most normal people don’t see anything wrong in wrong in dropping bombs on snackbaring fanatics in the desert and have been asking increasingly uncomfortable questions why the neocons seem to be having problems with that (especially once Russia started releasing drone footage of all those trucks ferrying oil from the Islamic State to Turkey).
There are a few negatives to be sure:
(1) The most obvious one is the breakdown of relations with Turkey, with which Russia had previously had good ties, including multiple industrial projects and visa-free travel. But ultimately the economic ties aren’t all that dense and are loaded aganist Turkey. Whereas Russian tourists can always go some other place – why not Crimea? – Turkey gets most of its gas from Russia, and is paying Rosatom to construct its nuclear power plants, so it would suffer far more from a total breakdown in relations than would Russia. In any case, since Turkey and Russia have so many conflicting spheres of interest – the Balkans, Caucasus, Central Asia, and now even Crimea and the Near East – which transcend the particularities of any regime that would conveivably happen to be in power in either Ankara or Moscow, I don’t think any true strategic partnership between the two is possible in principle. There is a reason that the Russian and Ottoman Empires were fighting wars nonstop from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
(2) Some analysts such as Vox’s Max Fisher have claimed that Putin has failed to link his help in resolving the Syrian crisis in return for a “grand bargain” in which Crimea is recognized as part of Russia and sanctions are lifted. Therefore, their argument goes, there is not much use in continuing the charade. The problem is that there is no actual evidence for this hypothesis. Both US and Russian officials have repeatedly excluded that any such considerations exist, plus there is the banal but extremely important fact that the sanctions have been almost entirely negligible in their contribution to Russia’s recession (Reminder: According to Citi Research, they were responsible for only 10% of the decline in output).
On the converse, Russia’s withdrawal from Syria will give it a great deal more leeway in Ukraine (though if the prospect of a surge in tourism to Novorossiya that some Russian pundits are now positing is but a pleasant daydream).
(3) Another “problem” is that Russia’s withdrawal will be painted as a sign of weakness – of conviction, and/or fiscal. Worrying about it is pointless since the Western media will absolutely never treat Russia fairly so long as Russia remains sovereign and certain elites continue to exercise power in the West. Better be thought cowardly and/or insolvent than be actually stupid.
(4) The final issue that people have with this “premature” withdrawal is that it paves the wave for Syria’s partition. This is an issue that deserves to be addressed at length.
The Road to Partition
I appreciate the arguments that perhaps foreigners don’t have all that much business in poking their noses into the constitutional arrangements of other countries. All the more so if said countries belong to different civilizations and cultural traditions.
To the contrary, it is worth stressing that more than 70% of Syrians themselves oppose the division of their country across territories held by the government, the opposition, and even Islamic State (though this falls to 50% in YPG-held areas).
That said, the poll that revealed this didn’t feature a critical addendum: Would any of those groups still have been so deadset against division assuming that a faction they dislike was in charge of the central government? Hypothetically, if continued unity meant being ruled by the top dog from Idlib (to say nothing of Raqqa), I assume that support for a unified Syrian state amongst the cosmopolitan Alawites of Latakia would plummet to near 0%.
This is why I ultimately end up agreeing with former USN Admiral and NATO supreme commander James Stavridis that it is time to seriously consider partitioning Syria.
From the outset, I will reveal a dirty secret: Neither Turkey nor the Saudis actually want a partition of Syria.
If there is a de facto partition now, the Turks and Saudis will be left with a vast desert wasteland – poor, rural, backwards, heavily inbred and IQ-depressed even before the war; now utterly destroyed and teeming with dozens of warlords and tens of thousands of Islamist fanatics. Refugee outflows from Desert Syria will continue, or intensify further if the rebels now proceed to turn on each other. Should Far Right parties continue to consolidate their gains in Europe, that particular relief valve will be turned off, thus turning up the pressure on Syria’s more immediate neighbors. With a population that is now a quarter refugee and strongly influenced by Wahhabi sentiment, Jordan would be the next country primed for blowup. Turkey would be faced with the spectre of an independent Kurdish state abutting its restive Kurdish provinces. Like the Chaos Wastes, this benighted region will become the spawning grounds for new forcefully bred generations of Salafi militants. If Peter Lee is correct, Libya will be the location of choice to where they will now be “laundered,” but puppets do sometimes cut their strings and should Saudi Arabia see increasing domestic unrest as its oil money reserves dwindle then Islamic State might suddenly seem far too close for comfort.
In contrast, the areas currently controlled by the government can be built up into a reasonably well functioning and cohesive state. According to opinion polls, more than half of the population in all the governorates held by the government support Assad, but this figure falls to 39% in Aleppo, 27% in Raqqa, and a mere 9% in Idlib. Moreover, the government held areas have been far less ravaged by war, and though its demographic losses due to conscription and poor military performance have been very considerable, they are dwarfed by the scale of the horrors that have been inflicted upon areas held by the opposition, which have borne the brunt of the fighting, and the Islamic State, with its indifference to military casualties and inability to maintain basic infrastructure. Although the rebel held areas only account for about a third of Syria’s population, they have produced two thirds of its refugees.
This Coastal Syria will be small but politically stable, immutable to Wahhabi infiltration by virtue of a predominantly Shi’ite-Christian ethnic makeup that it could easily maintain by refusing to accept the repatriation of those refugees hailing from areas held by the opposition and Islamic State. Since repatriating them to Desert Syria will not be an option either, the infrastructure there being unable to support even the populations still residing there, they will instead wreck their havoc in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Western Europe – in a fit of poetic justice, precisely those countries most responsible for wrecking Syria in the first place. Coastal Syria will pursue close ties with Iran and Hezbollah and will seek to pepper itself with Russian and (perhaps, eventually) Chinese bases to further secure itself against Turkish, Israeli, and Western encroachment.
However, if Assad were to regain full control of Syria, this would be a poisoned chalice. The cost of repairing all the destroyed infractructure, rooting out radicalism, and providing welfare for millions more displaced people will be an unbearable strain on its already heavily beleagured finances, causing resentment in the Alawite heartlands and buying no love amongst people who will come to think of their defeated forebears as having pursued a noble Lost Cause. Most critically, there is absolutely nothing stopping the Saudis and the Turks from once again trying to topple a Syrian government strained from the costs of reconstruction, Sunni refugee repatriation, and demographically dominated by Sunnis in another 10-20 years time.
These are the reasons why for the Saudis and the Turks, the fundamental choice is about either Damascus or nothing. Preferably they would like to topple Assad outright and replace his government with some kind of Nusrastan – sharia with shopping malls – a full Assad victory is a clear second best. This, ultimately, is why they have refrained from directly wading into the conflict themselves, despite their obvious frustration with the entire situation. I suspect the Russians who advise Putin realize this and have no desire to play to Turkey’s and Saudi Arabia’s interests. Assad might not; from both his life story (an apolitical doctor promoted to the throne by the chance death of his elder brother) and his interviews, he strikes me as very straightforward character: Honest, civilized, not unintelligent, but not really cut out for the cynicism, deviousness, and paradoxes of geopolitics.
In this respect, the Russian withdrawal is if anything doing him and Syria a favor.
That can’t possibly be true! The BBC and Sky News keep telling me that the Syrians are violating it. If you can’t believe them ….
But why make the announcement right in the middle of a major offensive to take Palmyra, which was already advancing very slowly with heavy casualties? Now if the offensive fails, it will be blamed on the Putin-inflicted blow to SAA morale.
Obviously this is yet another Minsk-esque betrayal, designed to weaken Assad’s hand in the peace talks and force him to accept a deal not to his liking. However, Assad’s regime is not nearly as dependent on Russia for its survival as is the DNR/LNR, so he may well choose to keep fighting with less or even zero Russian air support. He still has Hezbullah, and I believe he only needs to advance about 10 km or so to completely encircle the rebel forces in Aleppo city, another 15 km or so to retake Idlib city.
Its almost like they are not serious about weakening ISIS
Russia came in saying it was going to fight ISIS and it pulled out leaving the Free Syrian Army rebels much attenuated and a much less weaker ISIS still in control of huge areas. ISIS was boosted relatively speaking by the Russian intervention. ISIS is being used to threaten Assad’s neighbours and the West that if they fail to back Assad he will make sure they will get ISIS, and not just in Syria.
“ISIS was boosted relatively speaking by the Russian intervention.”
-Nope; it’s being hammered by Jordan-backed rebels and Syrian Kurds. Russia also got the IS’s oil shipments to Turkey mostly annihilated.
“the Ghouta false flag chemical weapons attacks”
-Those don’t seem to be false flag; only the Syrian government had the capability to carry it out. Of course, why did it do it and what kind of reaction it expected from the U.S. is mysterious. I think Obama deliberately understated the evidence implicating the Syrian government in the attacks because he obviously never wanted to strike Assad, and being specific with the evidence would have risked creating some public support for the phony airstrike proposal (which everybody outside a very small number of people seem to have taken at face value).
Of course there is: the threat of Russian and Iranian intervention if the Saudis and Turks try any more BS in Syria.
Nonsense. The Ghouta attack was definitely a false flag. Making ‘bathtub sarin’ is not hard at all; virtually anyone can do it. An obscure Japanese cult, Aum Shin Rikyo, managed to make some back in 1995 and release it into the Tokyo subway system. It’s just very basic inorganic chemistry–the formula’s on the internet, for crying out loud!
There’s a strong case for why Turkey would not want a partitioned Syria as it would mean an independent Kurdistan on its toborder encouraging restive Kurdish majority areas in Turkey to continue the emerging civil war.
However, what about Saudi Arabia? It wants to take over all of Syria but if Syria is fragmented with Desert Syria in chaos and under rule by ISIS, why are the consequences for Saudi so terrible?
You link claiming the chemical weapons attack doesn’t support your claim of a false flag attack. If false flag means another party other than Assad carried out the attack then your link doesn’t provide backup. The paper linked questions the size of the warhead that allegedly contained the nerve gas and doubts whether enough nerve gas was delivered to kill the 1429 people reported by the USG in the immediate aftermath (also the paper is very skeptical of this precise figure determined right after the attack). The linked paper says nothing about Turkey or rebels or anyone else carrying out the attack and blaming it on Assad.
You have good analysis, so you shouldn’t damage your credibility by asserting certain belief in alternative theories that have not yet collected enough persuasive evidence.
“Actually everyone has forgotten the answer given by Vladimir Putin to a reporter about the duration of Russian operations in Syria. At the start of the airstrikes, the president indicated the withdrawal date: March, 2016. So he was happy to keep his word, to the general astonishment.”
@http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/03/vladimir-putins-latest-poker-move.html
If this is true, it shows how exactly the Russian strategists assessed the strategic situation (it tells a lot about Russian intelligence), how carefully the whole action was planned and how precisely and economically was executed. A brilliantly professional job. A clear message, also.
This is why you can’t trust Russians. Russians have no problem coldly strategising out their supposed allies once they have served their purpose. Happens all the time.
Make note of this China and Iran.
Russians are too narrow in their view of self interest to fight for a cause like a multi-polar world. Instead Russians being Russians.
The only Putin’s accomplishment in Syria is the reinforcement of the fact that he never finishes what he starts. That of course is the consequence of his knee jerk reaction modus operandi. On top of that he is a habitual liar. According to Putin there were no moderate rebels, no FSA at the beginning of the campaign. It seems the Americans were more truthful in this instance. Eventually Putin conceded the existence of some moderate rebels and was forced to accept some other groups in the negotiated ceasefire. After that the Russian planes were just sitting at the base because most of the moderates were in Russian area of bombing raids while Americans kept bombing the rest of Syria and Iraq. In other words the Russians were outmaneuvered even before the negotiations started. I am not going to pretend that I have private networks of reporters, spies or contacts in high places like some or that I have a patent on intelligence like others. I will pronounce my final verdict once the future of Assad and Syria has been decided. If Assad stays as the Russians have demanded all along and if Syria stays in one piece than and only than can Putin claim some accomplishment.
Good analysis.
“Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Western Europe – in a fit of poetic justice, precisely those countries most responsible for wrecking Syria in the first place. ”
mmm, Germany may have been part of the party wanting to oust Assad, mainly to get the Qatari gas pipeline into place, but I venture to say that Britain and France were much more active, supplying weapons, intel, and training to the rebels, using their planes to attack infrastructure, and with France even trying to assassinate Assad. Why does Germany now have to bear the brunt of the influx? Is it merely Merkel’s incompetence, or the typical attitude of Britain and France that Germany can be given the raw deal by default?
You didn’t do your homework: here, I put this one together this morning:
http://ronaldthomaswest.com/2016/03/16/natos-most-censored-story/
^
I am an anti imperialist. Russia, Iran and Syria are the resistance. If Assad and Damascus have been preserved, albeit in a partitioned Syria, the Empire has been defeated. For this I credit the courage of Iranian and Syrian and Lebanese and Iraqi fighters and the leadership of Vladamir Putin.
This piece seems well informed and well reasoned. Thank you Anatoly Karlin.
ISIS has lost huge areas to SDF and SAA since autumn 2015.
perhaps the author meant to link a 14 Jan 2014 llyod/postol report which also does not mention turkey,isis,MIT(not the school)etc but perhaps some R2P types should look up UNCLE RIFAAT in France because if not mistaken he is known and did gas the Brotherhood in Hama 1982. My interest recently has been to observe the Glencore $300mil to Barazani/GENEL Energy collapse and the 2010 book WEAPONS OF MASS MIGRATION(Greenhill/Cornell Press) the author is presently @Harvard’ sBelfer CTR but also has connections to Tufts which coincidentily is the present location of ADM Starvidis- perhaps some cross pollination?
Vlady’s looking old here. Who is set to be his successor? Medvedev?
Putin wanted his Air Force out of Syria before MANPADS started showing up. He also can’t afford to keep the troops there. His economy is increasingly in a shambles because of his imperial ambitions in Crimea and the Donbas.
Do you have to back up your wrong claims?
A possible, if conspirational, angle that is missing is the Kurdish one.
Russia had excellent relations with the Kurds since basically Catherine the Great, and has been backing various Kurdish movements in various hostile (to Russia) states for centuries.
It is possible that Assad, or hard core factions within the SAA was/were planning to attack the YPG, and that Russia had to move quickly, and make clear in no uncertain terms that they will not be associated in any “backstabbing” of the YPG by the SAA.
It is not a very good explanation however, since the SAA is currently not placed to decapaciate the YPG, and since YPG and SAA goals are broadly compatible, meaning that neither has to fight the other to achieve their goals.
Still, Russian support for the Kurds, and the SAA-YPG non aggression pact, are very real key parts to the Syrian puzzle, and most news organisation deliberatly ignore those because they do not fit the narrative.
The likely solution for Syrian Kurdistan will be that of a “anti Turkish buffer zone”, in which the Kurds get wide ranging autonomy, and take up the quite costly burden of shielding Syria from further Turkish aggression. Due to the economically marginal value of Syrian Kurdistan, and due to the fact that it is basically a long stretch of land exactly along the Turkish border, this is palatable for the loyalists. In a way, loyalist support for Syrian Kurdistan means that Syria cuts of a small finger, and in return Turkey loses an arm.
Another factor is that autonomy within Kurdistan will reduce Kurdish influence on Syria as a whole, meaning that the Kurds will not be in position to challenge the Alawites over leadership in Syrias leading coalition of moderate Sunnis + most minorities.
Something I wrote in another thread:
It baffles the mind to see people still believe in this “Putin the great savior” crap.
Putin, Obama and Netanyahu have been working together all along. And the main goal has been to weaken Europe and free up space for Israel.
Keep in mind that even at the height of the “crisis” between the West and Russia, the Kremlin NEVER took any measures against U.S. corporations. Never! In fact, business has been great for Visa, MasterCard, Coca-Cola, etc. in Russia. Oh and Netflix is rolling out its product in Russia. Gotta make sure those Russians get their share of Hollywood crap. It’s obviously a necessity you know…
The only measures they took were against small European farmers…
Now, whose special interests does that serve? Ha ha! Is it all starting to make sense now?
When did Russia take measures to stop selling their natural ressources for a currency in the form of digits on a screen that Wall Street can create ad infinitam at will, huh? When did they take steps to shut down the Rotschild-owned Russian central bank?
I must say, the whole “Ukrainian crisis” was beautifully staged by Washington and the Kremlin. It was a necessity to neutralize the greatest nationalist force (quickly transformed into “Nazis” by the Kremlin propagandists… Remember that the U.S.S.R. created the whole “holocaust” narrative) they would not suffer any setbacks in their plans to flood Europe with “refugees”.
And in case the situation went awry in Ukraine, the two great powers made sure Russia would “get back” Crimea to act as a buffer in the underbelly of Easter Europe (where the greatest resistance against the “refugee” crisis was to be expected) to make sure Israel would be safe, by making sure the empire kept full control of the Black Sea.
Also, why do you people think the U.S. has been sending heavy weapons to Eastern Europe? The “Russian threat” was the excuse. What are the nations seriously revolting against the hordes of invaders, huh? Remember that when the U.S. destroyed the former Yugoslavia, they were siding with Islam. Oh yeah, they were. And slaughtering Christians by the tens of thousands while they were at it.
And who was sitting idly by, just watching, huh?
Typical good cop/bad cop script and the world fell for it.
Remember the conversation between Obama and Medvedev…
They were just waiting for Obama’s second term.
It’s nothing but a piece of Russian propaganda. Russia entered US-Israel-Saudi war on Syria after waiting for nearly four years on the sidelines – not to save Syrians from the ongoing Holocaust but to counter Iran-Hizbullah influence on Syrian army.
Russia is interested in a stabilized Syria due to its strategic interests in the region. Russia’s only air force base in the region is located in Syria.
Putin has always maintained close relations with Russian Jewish and Israeli leaders. Israel’s former FM and opposition leader, Lieberman, a Russian Jew, is Putin’s family friend. Putin has assured Israeli leaders Moscow’s support for “Israel has right to exist” on several occasions. Putin or the Russian leaders for that matter, has always sided with the enemies of Muslims.
Moscow has been arming India since the 1950s to wage wars on Pakistan. Russia is still holding back delivery of S-300 missile batteries to Iran which were fully paid 9 years ago.
In May, 2015, the Jewish news commentary website, The American Interest in an editorial claimed that the delivery of S-300 is mainly delayed because with S-300 in Iranian hands, it will be very difficult for Israel if it decided to carry airstrikes on Iranian military targets in the future.
“A big wave of emigration after the fall of USSR created a large Russian (Jewish) immigrant community in Israel, and Putin believes that one of the big mistakes of the Soviet Union was to abandon its original friendship with the country,” editorial said.
https://rehmat1.com/2015/08/24/russia-drags-its-feet-over-s-300-delivery-to-iran/
I recall this good read back in December. December 2nd, 2015 NATO Discussing Ways to Provoke Russia Further
On Tuesday and Wednesday, NATO foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels on the pretext of “work(ing) on further measures to assure Turkey’s security,” and related issues, based on a nonexistent Russian threat
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2015/12/02/nato-discussing-ways-to-provoke-russia-f#more41089
March 15, 2016 Russia’s Military Aims Achieved, Putin Switches to Diplomacy
American presstitutes, such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, expressed surprise at Russia’s support for the Syrian ceasefire, which Russia has been seeking, by Putin’s halt to attacks on the Islamic State and a partial withdrawal of Russian forces. The American presstitutes are captives of their own propaganda and are now surprised at the failure of their propagandistic predictions.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/03/15/russias-military-aims-achieved-putin-switches-to-diplomacy-paul-craig-roberts/
March 15th, 2016 Putin: Human Evolution Under Threat By Big Pharma, GMO, Vaccines
President Putin issued orders his people must be protected from GMO “food” and Western pharmaceuticals “at all costs; ”believes next stage of human evolution is in “grave risk”. Western and global powers“intentionally decelerating the process for their personal gain.
http://www.healthfreedoms.org/putin-human-evolution-under-threat-by-big-pharma-gmo-vaccines/
You forgot the big one.
Repeating the same mantra over and over again won’t make it true.
“The big one” is to a large degree involved because its junior allies are pushing it to be involved.
Small European farmers have a lobby that ensures 25% of EU spending goes to CAP.
You are inane or a neocon shill.
The idea that Russia is responsible for flooding Europe with refugees is a core neocon/Soros talking point.
Muh independent Aryan Ukromenschen (that happen to be ruled by a Jewish President, Jewish PM, a Georgian wanted for corruption in his own country, an Armenian Interior Minister, and an American Finance Minsiter for some reason) the last great hope of Europe and the White Race.
Syrians will be settled in Ukraine, despite unhappy locals and the Donbass war
You do realize BTW that Ukraine hosts hundreds of Islamic militants and is on very friendly terms with Turkish kebab you cucked faggot.
Fine article. But missing one point. Syria war is about to end in some form of federalization. This brings us back to Ukraine, where federation is the only option that is, let us be serious, possible, with Donetsk and Lugansk in position similar to Serbian Republic in Bosnia. And that is exacatly what Russia demanded after putsch.
Russian core interests are in Ukraine, and war is about to start again there, at least according to Colonel Cassad. His information are, so far, accurate. (Also in English)
Well the Russian defence budget for this year has been reduced as were number of other expenses. The sanctions are having an effect. Of course as a member of a generation brought up on sound bites, fast food and short term instant gratification you are unable to comprehend that some things take more than a few minutes to have a result. If something does not happen right away then it can’t be happening, right? Putin just continues to dig graves all around him. He once again postponed the delivery of S300 to Iran proving one more time to be a totally unreliable partner. His split with Assad and Iranians regarding the continuation of war in Syria will cost him the last two remaining allies in ME if not in the world. It is funny to watch how Turkey and Iran are warming up to each other. In a few years Russia will be in a very sorry state all thanks to brilliant Putin.
Hey Homer
I’m glad the Russians are arming India to attack Pakistan.
Israel enjoys very strong relations with India and Israel too has been selling a ton of weapons to India to protect it from Pakistan.
I guess nobody likes Pakistan.
Even you don’t like Pakistan. That’s why you took your goat and left Pakistan.
Sherm
That is exactly my point. They were not ruled by all those people prior to Maidan.
As to your first point, that actually proves my point. The E.U. hates small farmers. They hate having to deal with them. And the E.U. was never designed to protect European interests. Are you following the logic here…
As to the current government situation in Ukraine, well, that actually proves my point. The Ukrainian people, who fought valiantly against the worst monsters in history, that would be the Zionist Bolsheviks (who brought the art of mass rapes, including grannies and babies and priests, etc. to new heights), were NOT governed by those people prior to Maidan.
Finally, I did not say that Russia was flooding Europe with Muslim invaders. I said that Washington and the Kremlin were working together to undermine Europe.
That has been true since WWII. Today, the are just going for the jugular because people have been waking up to their own genocide.
Very good points. I remember The Faker bragging about “sanctions having no effects on the Russian economy” literally a few days/weeks after sanctions were imposed.
But I suppose he and the chess master had also said oil would not go down under $80.
I must say… I fell for a lot of Kremlin propaganda at the time of Maidan and it took me a while to realize I had been taken for a ride.
But I always had the take of French political scientist in the back of my mind… ever since Putin’s rise to power Hillard has argued he was part of the globalist click. And he has written articles and given many interviews demonstrating it. Still, sometimes the propaganda can be so powerful…
{a Georgian wanted for corruption back home,..}
The filthy Neocon agent Saakashvili is also wanted for treason: the Turkophile scum was urging Georgia’s military to abandon their posts and go fight with Kievan neo-Nazi invaders against ethnic Russian freedom-fighters of Novorossiya.
{..an American Interior Minister, }
Interior Minister Avakov is not American. He is Armenian by birth. {AK: Yes, I know, thx and fixed}
But there is not an ounce of Armenian in him, other than his genes.
Someone who works for neo-Nazis is no Armenian: he is anti-Armenian by definition.
During the electricity rate increase protests in Yerevan, the SorosaScum traitor sent a letter to the young leaders in Yerevan urging them to launch a ‘Maidan’ in Yerevan.
He was naturally ignored. But the fact that an ‘Armenian’ would urge a civil war in Armenia is proof there is nothing Armenian left in him by now.
If the treasonous snake ever steps foot in Armenia, Armenian patriots will beat him to a pulp, and ship him back to his Nazi buddies.
The Russians have greatly weakened the Free Syrian Army rebel alliance around Aleppo, a key battlefield. ISIS made gains around Aleppo at the expense of the FSA rebels. The western backed southern front rebels have been hammered by Russian air power and , ISIS have moved inb ringing them within striking distance of Jordan were the US controls and command for the Syrian war is.
ISIS has merely lost dessert and the ISIS capital of Raqqa is still firmly in their hands, not even under siege . Relatively speaking ISIS is stronger in Aleppo, and much stronger in the south now relative to the FSA than they were before the Russian intervention. So the Russians have helped ISIS.
Vlad looks as if he’s been been decapitated and then reattached under Obamacare in that one … isn’t modern science wonderful?
Seriously, that’s the best you’ve got?
The US was bombing empty desert in southeast Syria. The US was and is at war with the Syrian people. Anyone with a modicum of military sense knows that the US was playing double game from its perches in Iraq and Turkey. Turkey, the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia supply and care for their mercenaries who are fighting against the Syrian Army. Russian intervention has exposed the lies of the Sunni oil monarchies and NATO.
You are also a splendid Lewis Carroll version of Humpty Dumpty 🙂
Cf. “anti imperialist”.
Presumably that, in this case, could be translated as “anti US government”???
Quite limited ones. At the same time, they lost ground in the border area to said rebels.
They were asking for it.
East Aleppo and Hasakah are desert?
This idiotic conclusion is based on the wrong premise that the FSA is the main opposition against ISIS.
Main opposition against in Syria are YPG/SDF and pro-government forces.
The decentralised, leader-less FSA is without massive foreign support a liability.
While the economic angle is overblown, the ongoing and pretty obvious Kiev operations for a new offensive aimed at retaking Donbass are a real thing. It is indeed quite possible that Russia wishes to minimize her part in Syria in order to deal with/focus on the next Kiev invasion.
The outcome of the next Kiev invasion is imho clear, it will be another military defeat for Kiev.
What is not clear is how much direct aid from Russia will be neccessary to establish this outcome, how the concurrent diplomatic battles will play out, and if the point at which Ukraines regular army has enough will be reached.
They supported the Kurds against Turkey, and ISIS against the FSA. Only the FSA around Aleppo , where they seemed to be grinding down Assad, were seriously hammered and pushed back . The Russians obliterated a British donated bakery for the displaced Syrians within Syria . Anyway, the Assad regime forces are now just reaching the gates of Raqqa, where ISIS lives, and suddenly all the steam is going out of the attack. Coincidence, eh? The Russians and Assad are have reasons of their own for keeping ISIS around. The Southern Front was hammered by Russian bombing and ISIS in all but name has training camps very close to the Jordanian border now. Assad is threatening the Hashemite state with ISIS.
Hi Sharon – Yes the Hindu extremist love Israel just like they love Adolf Hitler.
Contrary to that Pakistani Muslims hate all three – Israel, Hitler and Hindutva.
I brought my “Pakistani goat” (nuclear experience) to Canada because Ottawa wanted to buy it.
I’m happy in Canada because Muslims are not treated Jews were until WWII here. The top hotels in Toronto and Calgary used to have signs posted outside main entrances, saying: NO DOG, NO JEW ALLOED.
And you know why?
In May 2015, Ontario Judge Heather McArthur sentenced professor Benjamin Levin (University of Toronto) to three-year in prison for marketing child pornography.
Levin, according to Judge McArthur, “urged people he met online to sadistically sexually assault their children in his quest for sexual thrills.”
https://rehmat1.com/2015/05/31/jewish-professor-convicted-for-marketing-child-porn/
Could you please give content and definition to your idea that “you can’t trust Russians” by a contrast and compare exercise?
How have you described them (presumably their government) as different from the US and many others? Maybe they are not afflicted by the problems of a semi democracy like the US which let everyone down from 1921 to 1941 as a result, largely, of populist isolationism. So are you crediting them with a consistency which derives from their authoritarian traditions of rule that seems now to be re-established? Thus more predictable? Thus MORE trustworthy, n’est-ce pas?
With some surprise I have enjoyed watching Oliver Stone’s “Secret History” series. (Nothing like something completely new; to wit, in my case, the story of the ousting of Wallace as V-P in 1944 to let Truman slide into the Presidency and accept advice from….). The immediately relevant point was that Stalin reliably kept his word to allies on military matters and that he was in fact quite reliable/predictable if you understood what, in particular, Poland meant to him in terms of security. Stone’s version also is that Stalin only turned to Germany and the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact because the UK and France wouldn’t deal to protect the USSR from Germany attacking through Poland. (I can’t remember if it was in fact seriously considered but rejected because of the fine print – or maybe Polish objections!).
So… how does that relate to your thesis about Russian untrustworthiness? And compared to whom?
Lets’ the brave General Breedlove and Sec. of Def. Ash Carter show their valor and defeat ISIS. These gentlemen (and their chorus of neocons) have been livid about Russia’s involvement in destroying the ISIS oil-trading routs and about ISIS’ steady retreat thanks to RF’ military actions. Time for the US/NATO deciders to earn the laurels of winners over the menace. From this perspective, Russian Federation behaves quite politely and leaves it for the exceptional nation to show the exceptional results in a war with the Middle Eastern insurgency – the rise of which has been provoked by western actions, by the way. Who can forget the looting of Bagdad museums, the Abu Ghraib, “we came, we saw, he died,” and similar feats of the “democracy of the march” (Condi-Dick-Wolfowitz-style).
Like you, the US/NATO have been very unhappy abut Russia’s involvement in a fight against ISIS. Your prayers have been answered and the US/NATO are now free to defeat ISIS on their own, without Russians.
“…he never finishes what he starts….”
What exactly the Russian Federation was supposed to “finish” in Syria? The article is crystal clear that the whole Russian operation in Syria has a concrete goal and a definite time frame for that goal. Let’s see how serious the US/NATO are about ISIS.
Karlin just invented this point that Saudi Arabia and Turkey do not want partitioned Syria out of the blue, it is the usual Karlin pie-in-the-sky. Of course each of the thieves wants the whole of Syria under his control (and I am not even mentioning what the il-capo-dei-capi, Israel, wants). But there is too many thieves whilst Syria is too small a loot for all their appetites. Thus, the next best is a division which recognizes the interests of each thief sharing the loot. For example, what kind of problem would it be for Turkey if it owned the North-Eastern Syria where Kurds live? Turkey gets the oil whilst it suppresses the Kurds, just like the Kurds in Turkey and in Iraq. Massacring the Kurds daily is what Turkey does anyway and massacring a few more is a small price to pay for the enrichment of the Sultan’s dynasty. Thus, owning Nort-Eastern Syria is a much better proposition for Turkey than semi-independent Syrian Kurds in a Federated whole Syria.
Karlin can put forward a totally wrong point quite convincingly. But his analysis of the situation is still valid and he makes many a few good points in this write up.
This is very funny. The Hasbara are not happy when Russia is in Syria then they are unhappy when Russia leaves Syria. BTW, the only unfinished business I have heard of is that Russia did not get to bomb Israel, which most of this World is dreaming of – someone giving Israel the taste of their own medicine, not a few puny Hezbollah rockets, then a modern military bombing with 1/2 ton bombs of the kind that Israel practices on the Palestinians.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/women-suicide-bombers-trigger-deadly-blast-in-nigerian-mosque/2016/03/16/7551edee-c2df-4b18-9338-6518ebfba542_story.html
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/03/16/Bomb-on-government-employee-bus-kills-16-in-Pakistan/8141458125340/
LoL This is just today !!!!!!
I’m sure ISIS is deeply grateful that the Russians destroyed their petroleum operations. We know that Bilal Erdogan is.
Sure he is. And he’s also threatening Iraq–and even his own Syria!–with ISIS.
Sorry for the lengthy post:
“The director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan, General William Odom recently remarked, “by any measure the U.S. has long used terrorism. In 1978-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism – in every version they produced, the lawyers said the U.S. would be in violation.”… Former British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, told the House of Commons that Al Qaeda was unquestionably a product of Western intelligence agencies. Mr. Cook explained that Al Qaeda, which literally means an abbreviation of “the database” in Arabic, was originally the computer database of the thousands of Islamist extremists, who were trained by the CIA and funded by the Saudis, in order to defeat the Russians in Afghanistan.
The 2003 American invasion and occupation of Iraq created the pre-conditions for radical Sunni groups, like ISIS, to take root…. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) used to have a different name: Al Qaeda in Iraq. After 2010 the group rebranded and refocused its efforts on Syria.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/america-created-al-qaeda-and-the-isis-terror-group/5402881
Here is a beautiful question for those that are still looking for the origin of and sources of support for ISIS:
“It is interesting to note that U.S. taxpayers are spending $615,482 every hour to fight a “war” in which the “enemy” is being well-financed by countries with whom the U.S. has full diplomatic relations. Does this not make it appear that “victory” over this enemy is not the goal? With many countries financing and supplying Daesh, might the world’s largest supplier of weaponry, the U.S., not be too interested in losing such a lucrative market? It’s worth noting that the United States’ “foreign military sales rose to a record high of $46.6 billion for fiscal 2015.” With such a healthy cash cow, would the country’s power-brokers really want to end war? Why kill the goose that is laying such pretty golden eggs?”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-02/isis-enemy-us-created-armed-funded
And here is the most relevant info: “…only days after the 9-11 attacks one of the top generals in the Pentagon had showed him a memo from then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld outlining long-term U.S. war plans… “We’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” http://americanfreepress.net/general-blows-whistle-on-islamic-state/#sthash.4jtoCFhT.dpuf
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/12160676/Islamic-State-hit-by-cash-crisis-in-its-capital-Raqqa.html
Ah, Islamic State will be overthrown due to low pay and the rising cost of fuel. I am beginning to appreciate the sublime subtility of the Russian mind. Here was me thinking the Russians not destroying IS in its Raqqa lair was proof of Assad and the Russians having plans for IS.
They are being harassed in certain areas but not in the south, which is a way of pushing IS to destabilize Jordan. Jordan hosts the US effort to support rebels, so Assad is obviously going to try and retaliate by destablising Jordan.
The US created the Vietnamese communist guerrillas to fight the Japanese in WW2, but that didn’t mean they controlled them ever after.
The US has never planned on overthrowing Jordan. Only a few far sighted Israelis want IS to do that.
You have forgotten to add the sending to Paradise of a large proportion of the thousands of religious Chechens (ethnically Turkoman) who were fighting with the Al Nusra “moderates”. Hence the need for Russia to label Al Nusra as extremists. I think that we can assume that between air attacks and special forces, the Chechens no longer function. There may even be a connection with the recent musings of Kadyrov, leader of the nationalist Chechens about standing down. If the religious Chechens are broken, his faux pas become too high a price for his skills in repression.
What? A major military power can set up shop and close up within 6 months? No way….. thats not how America taught me war is like. And within budget too? Now you’re just making things up.
/sarcasm>
{Chechens (ethnically Turkoman) }
Your information is incorrect.
Chechens are indigenous people of Caucasus region, with their own country of Chechnya.
Been there for 1000s of years.
The so-called ‘Turkomans’ who are squatting in Syria are descendants of nomadic Turkic invaders from East and Central Asia.
The only thing Chechens and Syria’s illegally squatting Turks have in common is their religion – Islam.
You are right though that Russian AF, SAA, and Kurds pulverized lots of ‘Turkmen’ terrorists formerly squatting in Syria.
Too bad Russian AF is standing down: all those ‘Turkmen’ terrorists deserve eternal life in Paradise.
Not fair.
There are indeed major differences between Chechens and Turkmens.
Interestingly enough, traditional Chechen culture used to be somewhat gender egalitarian (women did, on ocassion, fight and could bear arms). That went out of the window with the Salafist madrassas.
Didn’t get past.. “Something I wrote in another thread:” Ha ha …Your quoting yourself as if it is some basis of fact or you are some kind of authority on the subject. Something I wrote in another thread… “Never trust someone who quotes themselves from another thread…they generally turn out to be Wankers..”
March 17th, 2016 10,000 Kalashnikov guns donated by Russia to Afghan government — Russian UN envoy
Russia donated to the Afghan government 10,000 Kalashnikov guns and 2.1 million cartridges in February, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said on Tuesday. “In February, we donated weapons and munitions to Afghanistan (10,000 Kalashnikov submachine guns and 2.1 million cartridges),” he said at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
http://tass.ru/en/defense/862576
Existence of Islamic State is an ideological threat to Saudi Arabia.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/isis-aim-saudi-arabia_b_5748744.html
250,000 Syrians Died and 7 million displaced, made refugees, to guarantee Israel’s security — which really means, guarantee that Israel can kill Palestinians and attack Lebanon at will and with impunity.
NEW IRAN AND SYRIA 2.DOC
quoted from the Wikileaks website
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/18328#efmADMAFf
This. Funny how Obama declared war on ISIS in August 2014 and the U.S. has been mostly bombing empty desert and, until the Russians showed up, left all the massive oil tanker convoys from Daesh to Turkey alone. And yet somehow it’s entirely Putin’s job, and not that of the indispensable Nation and world’s only superpower, to finally finish off ISIS rather than good ole’ US of A. When did that subtle shift in the neocons and MSM’s positioning take place? When did leaving ISIS still running Raqqa if not Palmyra become a Russian rather than American failing (at least until The Donald gets elected and finally wipes the bastards out, 100s of Turkish and Saudi special forces and all)?
Once the Russians punked the U.S. by showing the world this fact, team ‘Wahhabi Ziocon’ to use Michael D. Weiss phrase started furiously spinning, with neocon nutters like the Henry Jackson Society’s @KyleWOrton claiming all the illicit ISIS oil was sold by Kurds and the Turks didnadonuthin’ except maybe let the occasional Al-Nusra fighter through their border.
It’s a joke and only neocons are arrogant enough to think everyone at CENTCOM is too stupid to look at a frickin’ map of ISIS/AlNusra supply lines up the Euphrates valley through Azaz which the Turks shelled the YPG to keep open after the Russians bombed it and killed a bunch of Turkish Grey Wolves and truck drivers. Apparently the military including the Joint Chiefs are all dumb animals and didn’t notice that ISIS has been losing territory ever since their supply lines to Turkey, Jordan and Iraq’s Sunni Anbar province started getting pinched (but not entirely closed off just yet).
The irony of the situation is that the neocons are now more Israeli than the Israelis when it comes to opposing the Russians or calling for the now moot ‘no fly zone in Syria’. In fact, people like Weiss, Mike Doran or the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) crew use Zionism as a cover for their general whoring on behalf of the Sauds and Qataris. If The Donald actually started enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act against ‘think tanks that don’t do lobbying’ like FDD or the BrookingsDoha center they’d have to add a new wing to the federal white collar penitentiary from all the unregistered and illegal Saudi/Qatar/Turkey/Pakistan lobbyists on K, L and Mass Street.
When Weiss recent column said that the war in Yemen had generally been ignored or downplayed by MSM, I couldn’t help but laugh and say, “Yes, it’s been downplayed because despite huge U.S. logistical and weapons support for the Saudis they’re getting their asses handed to them by a bunch of Houthi goat herders with nary an IRGC advisor in site”.
This. Funny how Obama declared war on ISIS in August 2014 and the U.S. has been mostly bombing empty desert and, until the Russians showed up, left all the massive oil tanker convoys from Daesh to Turkey alone. And once the Russians punked the U.S. by showing the world that fact, team ‘Wahhabi Ziocon’ to use Michael D. Weiss phrase started furiously spinning, claiming all the illicit ISIS oil was sold by Kurds and the Turks didnadonuthin’ except maybe let the occasional Al-Nusra fighter through their border. It’s a joke and only neocons are arrogant enough to think everyone at CENTCOM is too stupid to look at a frickin’ map of ISIS/AlNusra supply lines up the Euphrates valley through Azaz which the Turks shelled the YPG to keep open after the Russians bombed it and killed a bunch of Turkish Grey Wolves and truck drivers. Apparently the military including the Joint Chiefs are all dumb animals and didn’t notice that ISIS has been losing territory ever since their supply lines to Turkey, Jordan and Iraq’s Sunni Anbar province started getting pinched (but not entirely closed off just yet).
The irony of the situation is that the neocons are now more Israeli than the Israelis when it comes to opposing the Russians or calling for the now moot ‘no fly zone in Syria’. In fact, people like Weiss, Mike Doran or the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) crew use Zionism as a cover for their general whoring on behalf of the Sauds and Qataris. When Weiss recent column said that the war in Yemen had generally been ignored or downplayed by MSM, I couldn’t help but laugh and say, “Yes, it’s been downplayed because despite huge U.S. logistical and weapons support for the Saudis they’re getting their asses handed to them by a bunch of Houthi goat herders with nary an IRGC advisor in site”.
But but but @KyleWOrton told me Assad created ISIS because Zarqawi’s cell has been retroactively labeled Islamic State! The 2012 Judicial Watch-obtained DIA report predicting a Saudi/Turkish supported caliphate in the Syraq desert doesn’t mean anything. It certainly doesn’t mean ISIS had a little help from some elements of the U.S. Deep State or that the Air Force left their huge convoys across the desert unbombed so they could take over Mosul or Palmyra, right Kyle?
Russia has not withdrawn from Syria.
As I write this, Russian jets continue to bomb. Is that a withdrawal?
But if Russia does withdraw, it will be abandoning its ally, Syria.
Assad will fall.
That makes Russia unreliable as an ally of any country.
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/03/17/putins-hardheaded-realism-on-syria/
“The latest Russian move should not have been at all surprising. To the extent that it was, this is because of imputing to the Russians motives and thought processes that they do not exhibit, and neither do most other people. The announced withdrawal shows that Russian objectives in Syria were never unlimited or grandiose.
The objectives had to do with such things as a temporary propping up of the Assad regime to prevent it from collapsing, and asserting a Russian role in helping to determine the future of Syria. The withdrawal also demonstrates that the Russians, just like most other people, consider costs and the risks of incurring more costs, along with considering benefits and objectives.
The Russian moves demonstrate in addition that Putin does not apply to the Syrian situation the kind of framework that many American critics of the Obama administration’s policies apply, which is to equate activity and especially military activity with the degree to which a nation’s interests are being upheld.
A corollary to this framework is the belief that Russian military activity not only always advances Russian interests but also retards U.S. interests, and that a similar inverse relationship applies to U.S. military activity. Putin does not seem to have fallen into that zero-sum mindset, and there is no good reason for the rest of us to either.”
{That makes Russia unreliable as an ally of any country.}
US abandoned its ally South Vietnam: North Vietnamese army rolled into Saigon, while desperate South Vietnamese who fought with and for US were abandoned, as the last helicopter lifted off of US embassy.
Note: US should not have been there in the first place.
But the b____s____ about Russia supposedly being an “unreliable ally” is debunked by that one example alone.
But wait, there is more…..
US created a mess in Iraq, and then abandoned its allies who collaborated with the invading forces. (a lot of Iraqis who worked for US forces, were abandoned and were subsequently killed)
US created a mess in Afghanistan, and then abandoned its allies who collaborated with the invading forces. Taliban is making comeback. (a lot of Afghans who worked for US forces were abandoned and were subsequently killed)
But wait, there is more……..
[Russia steps up its air operations around ISIS-held Palmyra as the Syrian Army and its allies inch closer to the city]
http://russia-insider.com/en/russia-steps-airstrikes-syrian-army-cuts-isis-supply-lines-palmyra/ri13456
{The limited withdrawal from Syria has not affected Russia’s participation in the assault on Palmyra. According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, Russian warplanes are now carrying out up to 25 airstrikes a day around Palmyra in support of the Syrian army’s offensive. The Syrian army has made steady progress over the last week, and is now within striking range.}
So, basically Russian AF had been so successful destroying ISIS targets, that it had run out of terrorist scum to vaporize and a bunch of jets were sitting idle at Khmeimim airbase. So the extra jets and crews were rotated back to Russia for some R&R. Ready for the next round, if it comes to that.
If you can’t believe them you can’t believe the Novorossiyans either.
British planes made precisely one raid on Syria. The rest is a fantasy too. What you wished happened not what happened. It’s not uncommon here.
Chechens, Dagestanis, Azerbaijanis and Northern Iranians are all variations on Turkic to some degree.Like Turks are mostly Greeks.