The course is ahead

Russia, losing one after another customers in the Middle East, is trying to remain a major player in the arms market in this region, and therefore is holding on to Syria with all its might. Damascus buys about 7% of its weapons from Rosoboronexport, which in 2010 prices amounted to almost $10 billion. From the point of view of international law, there is no problem here. The problem is different: then these weapons are fired at peaceful demonstrators. But Russian politicians fundamentally do not want to think in moral categories.

On December 1 last year, former Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government Sergei Ivanov said at a press conference in Moscow that he sees no obstacles to the supply of weapons to Syria. Russia, he said, "will do what is not prohibited by any norms, rules and agreements." More recently, Sergey Chemezov, director general of the state corporation Rostekhnologii, confirmed the course taken by the Kremlin: arms supplies to Syria will continue.

The policy pursued by Russia is easily explained: after the loss of the Libyan arms market with a "capacity" of $4 billion, Moscow simply cannot afford to miss another major buyer.

The most striking thing is that in order to deliver a deadly cargo to Syria, Russia goes to any tricks. Proof of this is the recent incident around the ship Chariot, which left St. Petersburg on December 9 last year, and a month later, due to bad weather, was forced to enter the Cypriot port of Limassol. After an inspection by local authorities, it turned out that the cargo ship was carrying 60 tons of weapons destined for Syria. The consignor of the cargo was Rosoboronexport. However, the Cypriot authorities did not detain Chariot and released the ship, according to some sources, taking a promise from the captain to change course. But after leaving Limassol, the ship immediately headed for Syria and on January 12 moored in the port of Tartus, where, by the way, the base of the Russian Navy is located. On January 8, the large anti-submarine ship Admiral Chabanenko, the patrol ship Ladny and the tanker Lena anchored in Tartus, while the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov and the rescue tug Nikolai Chiker anchored in the outer roadstead. The ships from Russia were met by Defense Minister Daoud Rajiha himself, along with the mayor of Tartus. Russian military expert from the Academy of Military Sciences Yaroslav Volokov, in an interview with the Rusiya Al Yaum TV channel, said that the presence of Russian warships off the Syrian coast would make a military invasion of Syria impossible. Like, this presence is at the same time a message to both the international community and the Syrian opposition.

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In order to deliver a deadly cargo to Syria, Russia goes to any tricks. Proof of this is the recent incident around the ship Chariot

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By the way, immediately after the arrival of the ships of the Russian Navy in Tartus, a member of the military council of the rebel Free Syrian Army (SAS), Captain Omar al-Wavi, expressed fears that one of them could deliver chemical weapons. Fears, it must be said, are not unfounded. The Assad regime has already used poisonous gas, which previously was not in the arsenal of the Syrian troops and which could only be quietly brought in by sea, in the cities of Homs and Alrastan to disperse peaceful demonstrations. And what, one wonders, then, is the difference between Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Moscow, and the late Saddam Hussein?

As Syrian analyst Munzer Bader Halum noted in an article entitled "Why Russians Don't Support Arab Revolutions" in the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, Russia is well aware that it is in a losing position. Nevertheless, Moscow is trying by all means to maintain the status quo - not only does it not support the "Arab Spring", but, using its veto right, blocks sanctions against Syria in the UN. Alas, the result of this is the rapid loss of Russia's authority in Syria itself. After all, you can not resist the whole people, as soon as the people are always right.