Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Thursday that accusations by Turkey of Moscow allegedly conducting ethnic cleansing in Syria are “groundless”. He met Putin in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi in May. “Our military personnel are fighting in Syria for Russia, for the security of Russian citizens”.
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The meeting is off to a “positive start”, according to Kirby, the State Department spokesman, who said the goal of the talks was to “to seek an established set of negotiating principles for – and to try to establish a negotiating team”. It is also expanding its political objectives to include blocking Turkey out of the conflict altogether. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the downing a “stab in the back”. Among the worst sectarian massacres of the war was the killing of hundreds of Sunni Muslim men, women and children by an Alawite militia in the town of Baniyas in Tartus province in 2013. “One year is in no way near realistic”.
“So far, Russia is not overextending itself and can [sustain] the costs, both financially and casualty wise – the deployments are still limited and sustainable”, said Vladimir Frolov, a Russian worldwide affairs expert. The Afghan War, which caused the deaths of 15,000 Soviet soldiers, drained the economy at a time of low oil prices and sounded the death knell for global communism.
Latakia is a region in northern Syrian near the border with Turkey, in the same part of the country where Russian Federation has established airbases, and where Assad’s forces are, generally, in control. Meanwhile, representatives from Syria’s fragmented opposition on Wednesday began a two-day closed-door meeting in Saudi Arabia to seek a united front for potential talks with Assad.
These minimal force increases and stepping up of Russian and USA coalition air attacks do not solve the basic internal problems in Syria and Iraq that feed the Islamic State’s attraction. “It is possible, over the next several months, that we’ll see a shift in calculations by the Russians”.
Assad’s fate isn’t an “insurmountable obstacle” but this isn’t an issue that can be resolved now, Reshetnikov said.
To sideline Turkey – perhaps even fighting a proxy war against Turkey by bombing Turkmen rebels in northwestern Syria – while pursuing military cooperation with the Western coalition, will require a longer stay in Syria, especially given Assad’s slow progress to regain lost territory. Turkey has a commitment to protect them, while Russian Federation considers the Turkmen insurgents in Syria to be terrorists who might easily return to afflict Russian Federation.
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“The prime minister and president agreed that the United Kingdom and Russian Federation should work together, with other worldwide partners, to tackle Daesh and the threat it poses, and on the political process to bring peace to Syria”, it said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
