The fall of the Assad regime is a blow to Russia's prestige, the BBC announced this evening in an analysis by its Russia editor Steve Rosenberg.
"By sending thousands of troops in 2015 to support President Assad, one of Russia's key goals was to assert itself as a global power." It was Vladimir Putin's first major challenge to the power and dominance of the West, away from the former Soviet space. And successful, it seemed. In 2017, President Putin visited the Russian Hmeimim airbase in Syria and declared that the mission was completed," according to the BBC editor.
Despite regular reports that Russian airstrikes are causing civilian casualties, the Russian Defense Ministry felt confident enough to fly international media to Syria to witness a Russian military operation, Rosenberg said, citing a Russian officer who told him that Russia in Syria "is on long distances".
"But it was more than just prestige." In exchange for military aid, Syrian authorities granted Russia a 49-year lease on the Khmeimim air base and the Tartus naval base. Russia has secured an important foothold in the Eastern Mediterranean. The bases have become important hubs for moving military contractors in and out of Africa," says the BBC's Russia editor, noting that "the key question for Moscow is: what will happen to those Russian bases now?"
For almost a decade, it was Russian firepower that kept Bashar al-Assad in power - until the extraordinary events of the last 24 hours. Damascus has fallen, the Syrian president has been overthrown,
he flew to Moscow and Russia gave Assad and his family asylum "for humanitarian reasons", notes the editor of the BBC, citing Russian sources.
"In a few days, the Kremlin's project in Syria unraveled in the most dramatic circumstances, and Moscow was powerless to prevent it," writes Rosenberg in an analysis carried out by the BBC tonight, recalling the announcement of the Russian Foreign Ministry that Moscow "is following the dramatic events in to Syria".
Source: Phonet
