By Vestnik Kavkaza
The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, stated in his address to participants of the second Inter-Syrian Consultative Meeting in Moscow that since the last meeting the terrorist threat had grown in Syria. Its geographical borders have extended. Terrorists of Islamic State are undertaking operations on the west bank of the Euphrates. They control part of the Palestinian refugee camp at Yarmuk. Jabhat al-Nusra has intensified its activity in the northwest and south of Syria. “Forces which are working on the humiliation of the Syrian people, the destruction of our homeland, have already consolidated or are consolidating. The so-called non-lethal aid which continues being sent to the region from abroad turns out to be support for terrorists and extremists, as it is used by them for bloody crimes against Syria,” Lavrov thinks.
Meanwhile, Aleksey Pushkov, the head of the Russian State Duma committee for international affairs, believes that the perception of Syrian President Bashar Assad has considerably changed in the last year or two in the West: “For example, in some European capitals President Assad is now considered a temporary partner to counterbalance ISIS. ISIS is an organization that threatens all regional and not only regional players. The Kurds are fighting it, Iraq is fighting it, Syria is fighting it. They go beyond the region, they act in Libya. Egypt has bombed them. The problem of ISIS today is much more acute than the question that was initially posed by the US and its diplomats, the question about the change of political regime in Syria.”
According to Pushkov, the prospects of overthrowing the government of Assad are now even more ephemeral than they used to be 3-4 years ago, but it is too early speak about a reconciliation of the sides in Syria: “It seems important now that this political process, those negotiations focus not on the fight against Assad but the fight against Jabhat al-Nusra, which is a part of Al-Qaeda, and against ISIS. Assad is not cutting the heads off American journalists. This region was free from that contagion, but not anymore. And you have to think before you decide to overthrow someone. But for some reason in Washington they do it in a peculiar manner. They create a threat and then fight it. These negotiations are important not because they will produce some immediate results, but because they reduce the element of military confrontation, and employ the political element in the regulation of the Syrian crisis. That is why Russia favors these negotiations.”
Alexei Pushkov is sure that there is a struggle for power, and the people who are now in Istanbul, they passionately divide ministries among themselves every second week. “We have seen the results of the 'revolution of dignity and democracy' in Ukraine. It turns out that one of the leaders of the 'revolution of dignity' is suspected of corruption. I am talking about Mr. Yatsenyuk. And they are already demanding his resignation and creating a commission for it. Look at this revolution of dignity! So let us not have illusions about the goals of the Syrian opposition. It is always a struggle for power. As the unforgotten Vladimir Lenin said, the struggle for power is the central question of any revolution,” the expert reminds.
