Why Russia Needs Syria

[Sally]

Interesting, if true, that Iran was behind Putin going into Syria.

Why Russia Needs Syria
Amy Knight

top, AFP/Getty Images; bottom, AP Photo/Sergei Chirikov, Pool

top, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev, 1980; bottom, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin, 2005
Russia’s entry into the Syrian conflict has fundamentally changed the dynamic of the four-and-a-half-year-old war there. With a bombing campaign that now includes launching cruise missiles into Syria from Russian warships in the Caspian Sea, the Kremlin is gambling that it can preserve the weakened Assad regime. The move brings Russia into a costly and intractable civil war, raises the threat of terrorism by Islamist groups in Russia, and puts Russian forces in direct confrontation with the US-led coalition that is arming moderate Syrian rebels and fighting ISIS.

So the question arises: Why is Russia doing this now? According to a high-level source in the Kremlin, the decision to intervene in Syria was urged on Putin this summer by three senior members of his team: Sergei Ivanov, head of the Russian Presidential Administration, Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and Nikolai Patrushev, former head of the FSB and now the leader of the Russian Security Council. Assad’s regime was increasingly in danger, facing not only ISIS, but al-Nusra, and holding, by some estimates, less than 17 percent of Syria’s territory. Even the Alawites, Shiite Muslims who are a crucial base of support for the Assad, had begun fleeing the country. With the conflict in Ukraine still unresolved and Putin increasingly isolated by the West, intervention in the Middle East was intended to reassert Russia as a major world power and act as a counterforce to Western support for the Ukrainian government in Ukraine.

Continue reading at:

Why Russia Needs Syria by Amy Knight

 

[irosie91]

>\

Interesting, if true, that Iran was behind Putin going into Syria.

Why Russia Needs Syria
Amy Knight

top, AFP/Getty Images; bottom, AP Photo/Sergei Chirikov, Pool

top, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev, 1980; bottom, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin, 2005
Russia’s entry into the Syrian conflict has fundamentally changed the dynamic of the four-and-a-half-year-old war there. With a bombing campaign that now includes launching cruise missiles into Syria from Russian warships in the Caspian Sea, the Kremlin is gambling that it can preserve the weakened Assad regime. The move brings Russia into a costly and intractable civil war, raises the threat of terrorism by Islamist groups in Russia, and puts Russian forces in direct confrontation with the US-led coalition that is arming moderate Syrian rebels and fighting ISIS.

So the question arises: Why is Russia doing this now? According to a high-level source in the Kremlin, the decision to intervene in Syria was urged on Putin this summer by three senior members of his team: Sergei Ivanov, head of the Russian Presidential Administration, Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and Nikolai Patrushev, former head of the FSB and now the leader of the Russian Security Council. Assad’s regime was increasingly in danger, facing not only ISIS, but al-Nusra, and holding, by some estimates, less than 17 percent of Syria’s territory. Even the Alawites, Shiite Muslims who are a crucial base of support for the Assad, had begun fleeing the country. With the conflict in Ukraine still unresolved and Putin increasingly isolated by the West, intervention in the Middle East was intended to reassert Russia as a major world power and act as a counterforce to Western support for the Ukrainian government in Ukraine.

Continue reading at:

Why Russia Needs Syria by Amy Knight

TRUTH, JUSTICE and the ruskie way..........

 

[waltky]

FSA doesn't want Russia's help...

Russia Says It's 'Ready to Help' Western-backed Rebels in Syria
October 24, 2015: Russia on Saturday expressed its support for elections in Syria and said it was ready to help Western-backed Free Syrian Army rebels.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow wanted Syria to prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections, and he indicated his government would take firm action if necessary to move that process forward. Speaking on Russian state television, Lavrov said the Kremlin was intensifying its drive “to convert its increased clout with Damascus into a political settlement.” He did not, however, give details about how there could be a transition from years of civil war in Syria, with an enormous toll of casualties and displaced civilians, toward a political settlement. "External players cannot decide anything for the Syrians," he said. "We must force them to come up with a plan for their country where the interests of every religious, ethnic and political group will be well protected. ... They need to prepare for both parliamentary and presidential elections."

In contrast to Moscow's previous broad statements about Syrian politics, Lavrov's comments appeared to signal a specific call by the Kremlin for political renewal in the war-torn country. The Russian foreign minister criticized U.S. policy on Syria and denied Western charges that Russia's airstrikes in Syria had indiscriminately targeted Western-backed rebels as well as Islamic State extremists.

Lavrov said Russia's air force would be ready to help units of the "patriotic opposition" in Syria — specifically, the Free Syrian Army — if it knew their whereabouts. He contended that the U.S. and its allies had refused to provide information about the rebel units' locations, or to "coordinate" their anti-terrorist campaign against Islamic State extremists with Russia's military. "I repeat: The Americans' refusal to coordinate their anti-terrorist campaign with us is a big mistake," Lavrov said. "We are seriously prepared for such coordination. Though we are denied information on the terrorists' whereabouts ... we are ready to give air support to the patriotic opposition, including the so-called Free Syrian Army. But we need to get in contact with the people who will have the authority to represent certain armed groups which are fighting against terrorism, among other things."

Rebels: Stop bombing

See also:

Free Syrian Army rebels reject Russia's offer for military support
Oct. 25, 2015 - A Free Syrian Army spokesman balked after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday said his country was prepared to work with the West to support Syrian rebels fighting Islamic State forces.

The Free Syrian Army on Sunday rejected an offer from Russia for military backing against Islamic State forces in Syria, saying Moscow could not be trusted. The response comes one day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on state-run television his country was prepared to work with Western countries in conducting airstrikes to support FSA units fighting IS militants -- provided the United States shared intelligence on rebel positions.

Issam al-Reis, an FSA spokesman, told the BBC the Russians could not be trusted since they are "assisting a regime that indiscriminately kills their own people," referring to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Since late September, the Russian military has conducted airstrikes on behalf of Assad, its regional ally. Moscow says it is attacking mainly IS forces, but Western nations say a majority of the strikes have targeted more moderate opposition forces, such as the FSA, which are backed by the West and Gulf states.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister reportedly said Assad should have no part in Syria's future -- an assertion earlier echoed by U.S. President Barack Obama and other Western leaders -- and Issam told the BBC the FSA would continue attacking forces loyal to the embattled president, who is also supported by ground forces from Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah. "If the Syrians stood with Assad he would not ask for invaders to come to Syria," Issam said.

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[Sonc]

One of the reasons - terrorism. In Russia there are regions in which the complicated relationship with the Muslims.
In these regions, problems arise regularly.


Several leaders of the Islamic State openly threatened Russia.


Other reasons have something to do with oil and geopolitics.

 

[irosie91]

the relationship between Russia and Baathist pigs has been bloody since the
1950s------very bloody. Baathist pigs did not develope nuclear weapons
but they gave us the all important new game in murdering innocents ----
PLANE HIJACKINGS------the bargain basement method of murder

 

[montelatici]

You need professional help.

 

[irosie91]

You need professional help.

to whom are you addressing your lackluster comment? I am a professional.
When an undergraduate I did volunteer remediation for people like you who
were unable to write a simple "composition" in english

 

[irosie91]

for more information on plane hijackings for murder-------google "Dr" George Habash--------George Habash -----like several of the doctors who fled gemany to
Syria and Egypt in order to evade the Nuremberg trials------had s strong desire to
kill jewish children----- He is credited with the founding of PLANE HIJACKINGS --
a practice we all remember everytime we take off our shoes at the airport and
surrender our tubes of toothpaste---------an ardent Baathist pig----Christian like
"dr'" Aribert Heim and Mengele. Baathist have specific tastes in christians

 

[irosie91]

PS Habash was a pediatrician

 

[Sally]

You need professional help.

to whom are you addressing your lackluster comment? I am a professional.
When an undergraduate I did volunteer remediation for people like you who
were unable to write a simple "composition" in english

I have to laugh when the team of Haniya and Mr. Saleem says that someone needs professional help. With their posting as a propaganda team on the Internet all day and night long indicates that they are the ones who need professional help themselves. An English woman who used to post here once said that they sounded like those who are on another forum based in England posting the same stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if in-between posts, they are on several forums. It's like a regular job for them.