Two African states are frustrating Moscow's efforts to establish a stronger military presence in the continent following the fall of Assad.
HMEIMIM AIR BASE, Syria — The Sukhoi fighter aircraft punched through the clouds, its growl echoing over Russia’s Hmeimim air base on Syria’s coast. Abu Zaid, a bearded militant with the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al Sham, cocked his ear toward the roar.
During Vladimir Putin’s year-end press conference on Thursday, NBC journalist Keir Simmons asked him about Russia’s role in Syria. Putin dismissed any suggestion of Russian failure, asserting that Moscow had achieved its objectives there and that the groups opposing Bashar al-Assad’s regime had “undergone internal changes.
The rapid downfall of Syrian leader Bashar Assad has touched off a new round of delicate geopolitical maneuvering between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In his first comments on Assad’s downfall, Putin said that he hadn’t yet met the former Syrian ruler, whom he has given asylum in Moscow, but plans to.
A lengthy convoy of Russian military vehicles rolled down the highway heading towards the Syrian city of Tartous on Monday as soldiers stood guard. Planes periodically descended and rose from Russia’s Hmeimim air base in the Syrian coastal province of Latakia while smoke rose from inside the base.
The Syrian regime’s collapse came more quickly than the rebels had dreamed — the circumstances were both serendipitous and part of a larger global realignment.
Syrian leader Bashar Assad issued what appeared to be his first public statement since he was ousted and fled with his family to Russia more than a week ago.
Russian President Vladimir Putin denied on Thursday that Russia's nine-year intervention in Syria had been a failure, but expressed concern about Israel's military operations there since the toppling of his ally Bashar al-Assad.
After the fall of the Assad regime, Russian cargo planes flew equipment from Syria to bases Moscow controls in eastern Libya, according to U.S. and Libyan officials.