Russia seeking to retain influence and relations with new Syrian regime

euronews (in English)

Russia left Bashir Al-Assad’s regime in the lurch last week, merely offering the dictator sanctuary, but the Kremlin remains keen to maintain its interest in the country and has established relations with new Syrian government, MEPs and experts tell Euronews.

Transcript

00:00Russia is not strong enough to deal with several conflicts at a time. That is why the Kremlin

00:11decided to prioritize its war in Ukraine when Assad's regime collapsed. But according to

00:17experts, withdrawing from Syria does not mean that Russia has lost interest in the region.

00:24The main theater for the Russian war of aggression is, of course, Ukraine, because we all know

00:30how things are developing there, and probably there will be some changes with the incoming

00:35U.S. administration, and they are concentrating just there. Apparently, the decision was that

00:42they have to prioritize the Ukrainian situation and not the Syrian one.

00:49Russia's efforts are purely focused on the war in Ukraine, and even in the war in Ukraine,

00:56they need support from North Korea. So this is why they were simply not able to afford

01:03any assistance to Assad's regime in Syria, and this is why this time he wasn't able to

01:10hold his positions.

01:12When rebels took control of Syria, Russia did not use its military force to support

01:17the regime as it has done in the past. The one gesture it made was offering refuge to

01:22Assad and his family. But Russia is playing a more complex game by establishing relations

01:28with the new Syrian government.

01:30We have seen that the Russian propaganda and communication landscape has changed its narrative

01:39immediately from calling these rebels terrorists and extremists. They have become now very

01:47friendly and they changed overnight. And this is obviously because Russia wants to

01:56establish relationships as good as possible in order to protect the military assets they

02:03have in Syria. And in Syria, this is important because this is Russia's access to the Middle

02:11East.

02:14Russia used to have two military bases in Syria, which are strategically important,

02:19the Tartus naval base on the Mediterranean coast and the Khmeimim airbase near the port

02:24city of Latakia. According to Russian state media, Moscow has secured the fate of the

02:29bases as part of a deal, but Ukrainian intelligence reports that Russia is already pulling out

02:36its weapons and military equipment.

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