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Page added on March 14, 2016
Putin announces Russia will pull most of its military from Syria
President Vladimir Putin announced Monday that Russia would begin withdrawing the “main part” of its military from Syria, a surprise potential end to a six-month intervention that bolstered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and dealt a grave blow to Syrian rebels.
The decision came as U.N.-brokered peace talks between the Assad government and rebel representatives got underway in Geneva. The planned Tuesday start of the withdrawal coincides with the five-year anniversary of the beginning of street protests in Syria, an initially peaceful movement that was brutally crushed by Assad forces.
Through it all, Russia has backed Assad. But Monday’s decision may intensify pressure on the Syrian government to strike a deal with rebel groups in Geneva. Talks resumed there Monday after breaking down a month ago because the rebels were suffering such heavy losses in their surrounded stronghold of Aleppo. A shaky cease-fire has quelled fighting in Syria since late February, but Assad’s forces have continued an assault on their rivals.
“I hope that this will considerably increase the level of trust between all parties of the Syrian settlement and will contribute to a peaceful resolution of the Syrian issue,” Putin said in a meeting with his top deputies that was broadcast on Russian state television late Monday. In a separate phone call with Assad, Putin said the intervention had “radically changed the situation” on the ground, according to the Kremlin.
Putin said that Russia would keep open the Russian air force and naval bases in Syria but that the task of the Russian intervention had been achieved and diplomacy should now take over.
The Obama administration was taken by surprise by the announcement, which the White House said President Obama later “discussed” with Putin in a telephone call that had been previously scheduled to talk about implementation of the cease-fire.
Putin made the decision unilaterally, without any such request from Assad, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. It was a pointed message suggesting that Russia’s support for Assad is not unlimited, now that he is unlikely to be deposed by force.
It was not immediately clear whether the announcement meant a full end to all Russian airstrikes in Syria. The Kremlin spokesman said that Russia did not believe that issues with “terrorists” — the term Russia generally uses for all of Assad’s opposition — had been solved and that Russia intends to maintain a presence on the ground. Previous Russian announcements about peaceful intentions in Syria have been met with skepticism by Western nations.
After Assad appeared weakened and on the verge of defeat over the summer, the Russian intervention inverted the course of the conflict, paving the way with airstrikes for Assad’s ground forces. By February, shortly before the cease-fire went into effect, dozens of Russian bombers and jet fighters were often flying more than 60 sorties a day, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry, enabling major territorial gains by regime forces. Although Russian leaders said they were targeting the Islamic State and other “terrorists,” U.S. officials and rebels said the bulk of the airstrikes were being conducted against other rebel forces battling Assad, some of which were supported by the United States.
The mission was Russia’s first overseas combat deployment since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, a major test for a military that in 2008 seemed stretched to the breaking point by a brief war in neighboring Georgia. Russia has sought to use the increased clout to play a bigger role at the negotiating table and to break through the international isolation that had settled on it after its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
Five years ago, few Syrians would have ever imagined that their uprising against their leader — a peaceful Arab Spring revolt — would turn into a violent proxy war for regional actors.
On March 15, 2011, Syrians took to the streets in Damascus for unarmed rallies that would spread like wildfire across the country and eventually be met with utter brutality by Assad’s security apparatus. Most Syrians back then would not have expected that the Islamic State and al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra would hijack their revolt and later provide the pretext for the Russian intervention.
For the first three months of the intervention, analysts and officials reported modest gains, as doubts about the battered Syrian army and other militias loyal to Assad persisted. But in January, a Syrian offensive began scoring major victories, cutting off supply lines from Turkey and threatening Aleppo.
After helping broker the late February cease-fire, Russia pledged that it would push Assad forces to adhere to the deal.
The administration had become increasingly frustrated in recent days over what it saw as Russia’s inability or unwillingness to press Syrian government forces to adhere to the cease-fire. In his call to Putin, the White House said, Obama welcomed the overall reduction in violence but “stressed that continuing offensive actions by Syrian regime forces risk undermining” both the truce and the political negotiations.
Late last week, the administration decided to publicly accuse Moscow of failing to rein in Assad, leading to a string of comments by officials including Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who on Sunday called on Putin to take control of Russia’s Syrian ally.
By signing on to the international agreement backing a cease-fire, he said, Russia and Iran “accepted responsibility for the forces that they control or influence. . . . So President Putin, who is invested in supporting Assad . . . should be somewhat concerned” by the actions of Syrian forces.
“We felt it was important, going into these talks, to make it clear that we weren’t blind to these violations, that they mattered, and that they really needed to stop,” a U.S. official said Monday.
Russian analysts said the announcement may be intended to press Assad at the talks after saving him on the ground.
As Assad representatives take a hard line in the talks, “I think that Russia is really not interested to fully take the responsibility for this behavior,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, a well-connected political analyst in Moscow who is the editor of Russia in Global Affairs.
It was unclear what effect the pullout would have on the negotiations. The U.N. envoy charged with the talks, Staffan de Mistura, told journalists ahead of Putin’s move that “the only Plan B available is the return to war, and to an even worse war than we had so far.”
Syrian opposition leaders on Monday offered cautious praise of the pullout decision.
“For us, it’s important to see actions instead of hearing words,” said Salem al-Muslet, a spokesman for the main opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee. “If this decision actually removes all Russian troops from Syria, then this will be a positive step.”
36 Comments on "Putin announces Russia will pull most of its military from Syria"
makati1 on Mon, 14th Mar 2016 8:03 pm
WaPo, not the most reliable source of info. Second only to the New York Times as a source of US misinformation/propaganda.
As for the story line, we shall see. I cannot imagine Putin giving up his base in the Med nor the pipeline route to Europe, nor endangering his rapport with Iran.
I will believe it when I see it happening.
Davy on Mon, 14th Mar 2016 9:03 pm
Good idea considering Russia is burning through its rainy day fund on a Middle East war. It will be interesting if they can get out as planned. It is easy to talk about leaving but far harder to get out whole.
Bloomer on Mon, 14th Mar 2016 9:52 pm
If the Assad government falls, the sectarian violence will continue. This is a Sunni/Shia, Turkey/Kurd conflict and Putin knows his influence on the outcome is limited.
Anonymous on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 12:12 am
Still convinced Russia’s contribution to the fight against the USlamic state in Syria is somehow bankrupting Russia I see. Care to point any kind reputable source for this contention? No doubt, it has cost Russia some, but the uS has poured many more billions than Russia ever could into funding the USlamic state and its terrorist proxy war. Besides, they are not ‘getting’ out as you suggest. The naval base at Tartus, Russia’s main air base, along with the new air-defence units all remain fully operational and will remain in place. And the planes can be recalled anytime.
It would serve the interests of peace and stability, if you americans could ‘get out'(and stay out). But somehow, I dont think yankee plans to go home anytime soon. Which means as soon as the ‘western alliance’ rebuilds and repairs the USlamic state, I expect the uS to send them in for another attack.
GregT on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 3:19 am
After more failed ‘strategic’ meddling in Ukraine, and now in Syria, what’s a poor bankrupt empire left to do? Push the button, and lead to total global annihilation, or settle for a multipolar world?
Sadly, I don’t see them giving up their control without another world war, or even mutually assured destruction. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. As a species, we never should have allowed them to get this far.
makati1 on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 7:14 am
GregT, the problem is, most Americans are greedy and will ignore immorality and insanity in their leaders if it keeps them living the lifestyle that used to be reserved for kings or pharaohs. In November, odds are, they will vote for the one who promises the most freebies, not the one who wants to take them away or restrict them. Democracy never really worked as it takes intelligence and rational thinking by the masses who vote to make it work.
Those traits never really existed in significant numbers. Still don’t. It is getting worse, if anything. Americans have enjoyed peace at home for too long. No significant number of deaths in the homeland since the Civil War. No destroyed cities. Ruined economies. Widespread starvation. Too bad. It has become a nation of chaos, warmongering and stupidity.
Davy on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 7:20 am
Use your head and not your emotions Toronto Anonymous. Try being objective instead of an anti-Merikan extremist. It is all good being anti-Merikan if you have something rational to say. Clearly US ME policy is a failure and it is obvious Russia has achieved some of its goals. The achievements are still open to debate. Syria is still a mess and open for grabs. This is the type of conflict no one wins. The only thing you get from these conflicts is who can destroy the most and own the most rubble. The Russian achievements where close to being very costly for Russia and the world because of a near regional conflict with Turkey. Blame it on Turkey fine but Russia was part of that equation.
Russia is in economic difficulties or are you going to deny that away? A modern air campaign, equipping a decimated army, and supporting 20,000 of your own troops is expensive. This in addition to the across the broad military buildup and readiness activities Russia has engaged in since Ukraine. Only someone with limited economic and military understandings would say it cost “Russia some”. What is it about you Canadians and your Merkan extremism? This article is about Russia and you Tards make it about Merika.
Anonymous on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 7:41 am
What is the uS policy in the ME anyhow? Care to articulate it in non-nonsense terms? I can give it a go. Its all about military adventurism, false flags, black ops funding of extremists. ‘Color revolutions’ (aka Arab springs). Permanent destabilization, embargo’s, economic warfare, actual warfare, assassinations, violations of territory by uS military units. Attacks with WP, and radioactive DU munitions. Billions in military ‘aid’ and technology transfers, including nuclear tech, to the murderous zionist regime in Israel. Murder by drones. And that’s just an overview.
But wait, those don’t sound really sound like ‘policies’ do they? They sound an awful lot like naked raw aggression and mass murder. uS actions scarcely deserve to be labeled as ‘policies’ whether they are seen as ‘successful’ or not.
Davy on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 8:18 am
So what’s new Toronto anonymous? You and others talk about the same thing continuously ad nausea. Please elaborate on something new and enlightening. You are just a zealot driven by emotions of hate and resentment. You are a blametard and complaintard. You are part of the problem and benefit from the spoils. You are living the rich life there in your wonderful big city on the lake talking shit when you are part of the shit.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 8:30 am
Putin is interested in securing Russian interests not an Assad family dynasty. This manoeuvre will hasten Bashar Assad’s willingness to negotiate with his opponents. Putin has secured Americas willingness to consult Russian interests regarding regional pipelines and Russian investments.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 8:42 am
And further more…. America is weak. They are no longer dominant in the world order. Iran and Russia together defied American will in the region. American power is in decline and a multipolar world order will emerge. If you ever drive through Anerica and stop at a few mini malls and look around you’ll soon know why. It’s because the country is filled with fat, lazy retards.
Davy on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 8:47 am
No doubt Montreal Liberal dumbass but your dumbass city sucks too. You are a fine example of why. I have been there a few times and there is nothing there that impressed me. Not only are there fat and lazies there too but assholes with attitudes that their itty bitty little country is the center of the global universe.
onlooker on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 8:59 am
Yes unfortantely, Mak is right Americans never really had a moral compass to begin with we are a nation borne of greed and self sufficiency/independence without a sense of community especially of course in the more modern times as consumerism and atomizes living arrangements further ingrained these traits in Americans. The politicians only wish to fuel this fragmentation and not allow people to direct their attention to the high up masters who oppress the masses of the world including Americans. We just have been more mildly oppressed with opium like distractions and comforts and conveniences allowing the rich to get richer. So Maks dissertation of American dysfunctions is mostly right on point especially in regards to our spoiled nature and social grotesqueness.
Practicalmaina on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 9:31 am
I went to the international fireworks competition in Montreal a while back, it was sweet. Also McGill is a great school.
Davy you can’t give Canada any shit for tearing at America, an American owned rail company did level one of their towns. Imagine heads rolling if it happened to us.
twocats on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 10:31 am
Hard to blame Russia for “adventuring” in the ME as compared to the US. ISIS was an actual threat, holding actual territory, killing actual people (compare to Al Qaeda numbers, even the made up ones, in Afghanistan and Iraq).
This looks to me more like a mic-drop than a “running with tail between legs because we’re broke”. Russia has mostly old equipment, and the fuel is free, so I’m not seeing where the massive cost is.
The objective of pressuring Assad to negotiate seems reasonable.
Also, as others have noted, they still have their installations, there’s no need to stay if the enemy has been routed. Maybe they are employing the Israeli strategy of “mowing the lawn”?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/11/19/israel-gaza-and-the-patterns-of-the-past/
Davy on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 11:34 am
PM, look I loved Canada until I met Canadians like I have met them here on this board. Clearly a statistically significant amount of Canadians find their identity on anti-Merikanism. The same is not true here.
The same shit is happening in Canada that happens here it is just we are a huge country with many examples to pick and chose from. Canada is small and without as many locations for comparison.
Montreal is fine just not anything for liberal dumbass to be high and mighty about. I love his one comment how he is going to shoot any American he see when the collapse comes. Fuck that. Fuck the Canadians that hate us.
Practicalmaina on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 12:09 pm
Which one said that? That is pretty obnoxious, you can’t hate a group because some of them are bigots and then be a bigot yourself.
Davy on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 12:17 pm
PM, Liberal bi-ASS dumbass from Montreal. The one that thinks he is God’s gift to earth. He brags about living off his investment income of $40k. Why do you think he hates doomers. He is going to be sucking eggs when the market tanks. He is a first class JO.
Apneaman on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 12:32 pm
“One often hears of the fact that the US spends more on its military than most other nations combined. This is usually presented as evidence that the US is more powerful militarily—perhaps so powerful that it could take on the rest of the planet, and prevail. I find this attitude highly questionable. If we look at what sort of “defense” the US actually spends money on, and what it gets in return in terms of military capabilities, an entirely different picture emerges: of a corruption-riddled blundering leviathan that is thwarting its own purpose at every turn.”
http://cluborlov.blogspot.ca/2016/03/the-wrong-kind-of-victory.html#more
Practicalmaina on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 2:02 pm
Davy, that is lame of him, with a name like that I would think I would find the dude pretty agreable, guess not.
Apneaman, a few points. First off how dumb is it there are still arms races amongst the super powers when everyone has nukes? The only good the military could do in the present time is prevent genocide, and a lot of times genocide occurs at the edge of a machete, not something that requires smart bombs to remedy, just a few moral folks with rifles.
Secondly, whether we would win or lose a war, hard to say, all I know is all of our war toys are name brand… the rest are just really good knock offs. 🙂
Practicalmaina on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 2:04 pm
Our new harrier knockoff, that shit is so hot, it disintegrates concrete.
Dredd on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 3:17 pm
Everyone else should do the same(The Battle of the Bulge).
makati1 on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 7:37 pm
Practical, the Us has been promoting genocide for decades. You just don’t notice it as it is called “bringing democracy” in the US MSM propaganda.
makati1 on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 7:43 pm
Practical, maybe you should look at the overruns/fuck-ups/graft on that laughable trillion dollar failure of a weapon called the F35. Or the carrier killing missile of the Chinese. Or the Anti-missile system S-500 the Russians are using. That new carrier is only one missile away from the ocean bottom.
You do know that the Us got it’s missile systems from Nazi engineers pardoned and kidnapped to the US after WW2? Ditto for the nuclear bomb.
Americans are not very innovative. What is actually “new” in the last 40-50 years? If you do the research, nothing. Just tweaks on old ideas.
Practicalmaina on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 10:07 pm
Makati I was referring to the f35.
makati1 on Tue, 15th Mar 2016 11:03 pm
Sorry, I don’t follow names of machines since I stopped buying cars. Thought you meant that other boondoggle that slipped of the launching ramp recently. The $13 billion dollar Carrier target. Carriers are obsolete, just like tanks and personnel carriers.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-us-navys-new-13-billion-aircraft-carrier-will-dominate-the-seas-2016-03-09
joe on Wed, 16th Mar 2016 1:53 am
Whoever leads Syria next has to know two things, 1.Turkey will hate you, 2.Rapproachment with Israel is essential. Irans blustering about Israel has resulted in exactly nothing. The real issue is sunni wahhabi paranoia driving support for isis and al qaeda type groups and also supported by Saudis, Qatari and Turkish islamists.
frankthetank on Wed, 16th Mar 2016 10:38 am
The country needs to be divided among sunni/shia/kurd…no way other then that can that country exist. Sometimes fences make good neighbors.
joe on Wed, 16th Mar 2016 12:12 pm
It was heading for genocide of all non sunni peoples until russia stepped in and saved the alawites, christians (whats left) and basically anyone not part of the muslim Ubermench dream.
JuanP on Thu, 17th Mar 2016 8:33 am
Putin says Russia can return forces to Syria in hours if necessary. The total cost of the operation so far has been $480 million and has been paid out from the normal military training budget. https://www.rt.com/news/335949-putin-russia-op-syria/
Davy on Thu, 17th Mar 2016 9:00 am
$480MIL didn’t pay for one of the cruise missles Putin shocked and awed with. What a load of propaganda from the best.
Anonymous on Thu, 17th Mar 2016 10:22 am
Not to worry. Russia can afford it. Now the real interesting question is, how many billions(with a B), have the uSraeli’s and their puppets spent funding the USlamic state and its alts? There is no easy answer of course. Most of the funds have been laundered through the GCC, NATO, various intel and special services of a number of countries, UK, France etc. One thing is for certain, waging war, even proxy wars is not cheap . Look at the 5 billion + the uS spent to lay the groundwork for its coup in Ukraine. And that was BEFORE they pulled the trigger. The Syria op may not appear on any one particular ledger or budget line in any given place-but the billions have gone out to the uS’s murderous ‘ISIS’ proxies by one means or another. And thats just what the terrorists got. The uS still had to pay for all that air-campaign. Remember that one? The only that dropped all those bombs in the desert sand, or bombed already destroyed buildings in an effort to look like they were ‘degrading ISIS'(sure they were). The uS ‘conventional’ farces running un-invited around Sryia cost more than Russia’s.
Bottom line, the uS has outspent Russia by many orders of magnitude here-and still has not managed to secure any of the pipeline corridors it seeks, or anything else to show for it-period. Well, except for the misery of the Syrian people I suppose.
As for the cost of a Russian Cruise missile, Russia sells the export variant of the Caliber Cruise missile to India for 3.5 million (per). Clearly that is at ‘retail’ (lol), and not wholesale. Most of the Russian bombs landing on the USlamic state and its turkish bound tanker trucks are a lot more cost effective.
JuanP on Thu, 17th Mar 2016 12:08 pm
Anonymous, My understanding is that the vast majority, more than 90%, of the bombs used by Russia in Syria’s campaign are left overs from the USSR that would have to be retired at some cost anyway making them really cheap to use with the new reusable high precision delivery systems.
The Russians used very few new missiles and smart weapons, just enough to show the world that they have them, they work, and they are better than what we thought they had. The training and experience acquired by the Russian armed forces in this campaign is worth more than the money spent.
I am very impressed by how the Russians achieved their main objectives in Syria. Their goals were to stabilize the legitimate Syrian government, create the circumstances for political dialogue, and kill as many terrorists, particularly Russians, as possible to keep them from going back to Russia later. All these objectives have been temporarily achieved in only a few weeks longer than the four or five months originally estimated by the Russian government. I say, job well done!
Davy on Thu, 17th Mar 2016 12:28 pm
Do the math 9000 sorties into 480MIL. Putin flying pigs for sale?
Apneaman on Thu, 17th Mar 2016 12:39 pm
Cmon baby, you can trust me……I promise to pull out.
geopressure on Thu, 17th Mar 2016 1:28 pm
Come on people… Putin was simply trying to influence the US’s FED Decision… He did not want to see interest rates raised… The Same reason that China announced a HUGE stimulus package last week… To make a US Interest rate increase more unlikely…
Geopolitics… All this stuff is incredibly intertwined…