Russia appears to vacate Syrian naval base as Damascus requests handover of Assad

The Russian military appears to have stepped up its withdrawal from the Syrian port of Tartus, which has for decades housed a Russian naval base, according to satellite footage analysed by the BBC on Thursday.

The footage, released by satellite imaging company Planet Labs on Wednesday, showed much of the Russian military hardware on Syria’s Mediterranean coast had disappeared as Russian naval vessels departed the port amid unconfirmed rumours that Syria’s transitional government had cancelled Russia’s lease for the port, the BBC wrote.

Despite the toppling of the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad, whom Moscow backed for years, in December, Russia has signalled its desire to retain its two military bases in Syria — a naval base in Tartus and an air base in Hmeimim.

During “frank” discussions between Moscow and Syria’s transitional government in Damascus on Tuesday, the interim government requested Moscow hand over Assad, who fled to Russia in December as rebel forces closed in on the Syrian capital, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing a Syrian source familiar with the talks.

In a vaguely worded statement issued on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that discussions with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa “on a whole range of issues” had been held and that the sides had agreed to enhance contacts to boost their “mutual understanding”.

The Syrian government made it clear during the talks that the restoration of Russian-Syrian relations “must address past mistakes, respect the will of the Syrian people and serve their interests”, Syrian state news agency SANA reported on Wednesday.

However, according to Reuters, the Russians “had not been willing” to concede having made mistakes in Syria, and that the parties had only agreed to continue talking.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who led the Russian delegation to Damascus, told state news agency TASS shortly after the talks that nothing had changed regarding Russia’s military bases in Syria and expressed his hope that Moscow’s interests in the country “would not suffer”.