Russia launched offensive across Syria from the aircraft carrier 'Admiral Kuznetsov' and missile strikes from the frigate 'Admiral Grigorovich' just hours after the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the President-elect of the US Donald Trump discussed the conflict, the Financial Times writes.
According to the Kremlin press service, Putin and Trump agreed on the necessity to pool efforts against international terrorism and extremism, and discussed the settlement of the Syrian crisis, the newspaper noted, recalling that throughout the campaign, Trump praised Putin as a strong leader and hailed his involvement in Syrian civil war as a campaign against extremists.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the air strikes were targeting Isis and Syrian jihadis, their ammunition depots and training camps, in the provinces of Idlib and Homs, and the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that all Russia's strikes in Syria are "targeted, proportionate and verified, and sticking labels is the practice of those who politically and in other ways oppose Russia".
The deputy head of the Council of the Russian Diplomats Association, Andrey Baklanov, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the resumption of active military operations in Syria by the Russian air forces is quite natural consequence of a break, which was taken before. "In addition to the humanitarian aspect and the development of the operational situation in Syria, the pause also included an aspect of creation a favorable launch pad for the start of negotiations with the new administration in Washington and the new US president on the Syrian dossier. In this regard, we have shown a certain political and diplomatic tact, not continuing active operations before the start of the negotiations," he explained.
"No matter how deep the agreements, reached between the presidents during a telephone conversation, were, they allowed to restore the process of performing tasks related to the suppression of militias and creation of more favorable conditions for the peaceful negotiation process on the settlement of the Syrian crisis. It is yet difficult to say how successful the implementation of new agreements with the US will be. At least, it is difficult to imagine something worse than it has been in recent months," Andrei Baklanov recalled.
"I think that in any case, the upcoming period will be more favorable from the perspective of a use of force against the militants," the deputy head of the Council of the Russian Diplomats Association concluded.
The President of the National Strategy Institute, Mikhail Remizov, believes that the preliminary agreement between the presidents of Russia and the US will significantly accelerate the settlement of the Syrian issue, and the chances are higher than ever.
"Trump has repeatedly stated that his priority is to defeat the Islamist terrorism in Syria, not to overthrow Bashar al-Assad. It was fixed not only in his speeches, but also in the campaign texts. Russia has been focused on cooperation with the US within the framework of such priorities from the very beginning. It is clear that there will be controversies -probably, it will be important for the US and Trump to have the winner's laurels, and Assad's fate will also be discussed in the way that he should resign. And, of course, the regional powers, including those which support the Islamist groups, are still there. Therefore, we cannot say that everything will go smoothly, but we have got a real chance to work out some kind of a joint decision," the expert said.
"Another thing is, whether a possible rapprochement between the approaches of Russia and the US is able to bring a real solution. The problem is that the region itself is largely doomed to instability. And any solution, that can be created from the outside, will be temporary. Therefore, the question is, whether Russia will be able to use it to reduce its involvement in this long lasting crisis process," Mikhail Remizov concluded.
