Russian pilots have started to work in Syria under the slogans ‘For ours’ and ‘For Paris’. These inscriptions are recently appearing on the shells that the Russian Space Forces use to strike the terrorists for the disruption of control systems and logistics, destruction of objects of military infrastructure, oil and gas systems of Islamic State. Now, according to the Ministry of Defense, the aviation group has doubled, reaching 69 aircraft, which perform 143 flights daily. The marine group has 10 ships, 6 of them in the Mediterranean Sea. Yesterday ships of the Caspian Flotilla launched 18 cruise missiles at targets in seven provinces of Raqqa, Aleppo and Idlib.
The main efforts are focused on undermining the economic and financial base of ISIS – 15 storage and oil processing facilities were destroyed, 525 road tankers. A supply of 60,000 tons of oil per day to the black market has been stopped, and the terrorists are missing 1.5 million dollars a day. At the same time, the elimination of the gangs and their leaders is continuing. 23 militant training bases were destroyed, 19 plants for the production of arms and explosives, 47 warehouses with ammunition and material resources, as well as other facilities. This ensures that the successful actions of the government troops in the Syrian districts of Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia and Palmyra. The number of terrorists who are arriving on the territory of Syria is reducing and the flow of militants fleeing war zones in the northern and south-western parts is increasing. More than 600 militants were killed as a result of cruise missile strikes on only one of the objects in the area of Deir ez-Zor.
No one is talking about the ground operation in Syria now. The chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, Alexei Pushkov: "The ground operation in Syria is an extremely complex issue due to the fact that none of the sides operating today want to bear the risk of a long-term involvement and long-term military presence in the Middle East. They have experience of such a presence, the Soviets in Afghanistan and the US in Iraq and in Afghanistan, in fact, NATO’s in Afghanistan in '82. The experience shows that it is easier to make a decision about a ground operation than to make a decision to terminate it "
According to Pushkov, now there are three parties that are using military air strikes against ISIS: "The one that is working very actively is the Russian side, the other two were acting fairly symbolically for a year and have not prevented the expansion of the ISIS presence in Iraq. At least, they extended their influence over at least 40% of the territory and maintain that presence. France is now sharply activated. Everyone knows the reason why. The United States, I think, should be activated".
The next step, according to the deputy, to create a transition to military co-ordination between those who have fought and continue to fight against ISIS. The fourth phase, as I understand, is to create the optimal conditions for the actions of the Iraqi army and the Syrian army, as they are the ground armies acting on the ground, on the battlefield.
Commenting on the cooperation of the key players in the world, Pushkov believes that the most effective platform to coordinate their action becomes the G20. "the agenda of the G20 is primarily financial and economic, but in an environment where the G8 as a global force has stopped working and became a club of the US friends and, in general, in my opinion, completely lost its meaning, because I do not really understand what new things Barack Obama discusses with the members of the G7 that he cannot discuss with them during bilateral talks. That is, I do not understand now the need for the G7 in terms of global politics. As a tool for coordinating the position of the Western countries and Japan that has joined them, perhaps, yes. But in the absence of Russia, China, India, at least Russia and China, the G7 is not functional. I repeat, this is just another institution for coordinating the policies of the Western countries, though there are many of them. There is NATO, there are other structures. So I think that, oddly enough, the G20 has now assumed the function of the G8 that is non-existent now in the political sense in terms of the urgent need to combat terrorism. In this sense, I see the role of the G20 as a reflection, firstly, that the world has become much more diverse, and such organizations require the presence of a larger number of states. The G8 is not an answer at all, strictly speaking, to the current situation. What can a global organization be without China? It is simply not serious. Even for discussion of financial and economic issues. So I think that the G7 will quietly move into the category of atavism of world politics, and the G20 will increase its role"
Speaking about the possibility of expanding the G20, Pushkov said: ‘’The greatest danger is that it will turn into a shortened version of the UN. And then it is very difficult to discuss problems in the presence of 30-40 members. As soon as you leave the line, I can assure you that another 20 countries will argue that they should be part of the G20, which would have been already converted into the G30, G50 and so on. I believe that the G20 is a new format, it should be fixed in this capacity. We should, perhaps, but in fact it is even necessary to expand its activities both on political issues, on coordination of the political line, because, I repeat, the G7 is unable to perform this task. And I think it needs to work in this format, to establish itself in this format and achieve success in this format, and then think about whether to expand it further. "
