Andrey Baklanov comments on the Syrian crisis

 “The process which has been launched by joint efforts of Russia and America has two sides,” Andrey Baklanov, Advisor to the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council, believes. “The problem of chemical weapons was artificially created in the Syrian situation. For some time it replaced all other problems, including much more important ones which concern the socio-economic and political crisis in Syria. Today we speak about crucial problems for Syria only in the context of Geneva-2 and mainly discuss chemical weapons. This is one side. It makes it clear that we shouldn’t feel euphoria that now everything has changed. It has changed only at this level."

"The second side is more positive. For the first time Russia and the U.S. turned from confrontation to joint efforts, even though the efforts are very limited. We believe that our goal is to use first positive signs in development of our dialogue with the U.S. in the Syrian problem to build a certain mechanism of cooperation and spread in on the next two levels. The first level is the all-Syrian settlement, and it can be done in case of success of the Geneva meeting in November,” he says.

Baklanov urges the Russian government to support the Syrian regime: “Despite all the ifs and drawbacks which we see in Assad’s regime and himself, I think we should extend our support to him, including military support, and don’t be shy of it. We should make conclusions from the developments not only in Syria, but also in other countries. In Libya the situation has reached a crucial line, we have to withdraw from there, I hope only for some time. But the developments started just like in Syria. I think we whould more actively provide support to the Syrian regime; despite our traditionally skeptical attitude to it, we should help it in the struggle against crazy bands of soldiers of fortune.”

The second level is the Middle East peace process in general. “If Geneva brings positive results in the Syrian direction, we can go further. If our contacts with the Americans are successful, we will need to return the mechanism of co-sponsorship in the Syrian and the Middle East directions. 11 years passed since the mechanism had been established. At first there was some progress, a road map, even though some moments were extremely naïve. Since that time, none of initiatives by the quarter of mediators was successful, unlike the period of co-sponsorship. I don’t think the quartet should be eliminated, but possible co-sponsorship should be in focus. The Russian-American duet could complement the quartet, which would be involved into the Middle East settlement,” Baklanov thinks.