Syrian funnel

There are immediately six landing ships of the Russian Navy in the East Mediterranean, an established air bridge, according to which Russian Ruslan delatias supposedly “humanitarian aid” in Syrian Latakia, many international observers are confident in the Kremlin’s readiness to support Bashar al -Assad with the help of “green men” and heavy weapons. What is happening and what to wait - the New Times found out

7 km north of the city of Latakia (

The capital of the Syrian province of the same name on the Mediterranean coast. - NT ) There is a picturesque place on the sea coast, it is called in the French manner - the azure bank, Cote d'Azure. Locals and tourists have always loved to walk, swim and sunbathe, despite the neighborhood of the Syrian Navy base. But in early September, several checkpoints appeared here with the soldiers of the Syrian army - the azure coast was inside the so -called “forbidden zone”. Patrols of security forces without any explanation stop and wrap back anyone who is trying to penetrate here. “As I managed to find out, Russian military personnel are now placed on this base near the azure shore,” Syriadirect.org reports, citing Latakia, journalist Salima al-Amara. And this is not the only place for the deployment of our military commissars. For example, they built prefabricated houses in Khumaimime, near the airport named after Basil Assad

* * Latakia Airport is named after the eldest son of the ex-president of Syria Hafuz Assad who died in 1994. It was Basil that was considered the official successor of his father as the head of state. - This place is well known for fruit gardens and groves. Moreover, according to the estimates of local activists, there are already about a thousand such houses in Khumaimim.

Three calls on September 5, US Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was called US Secretary of State John Kerry: the USA, he said, concerned about the strengthening of the Russian military presence in Syria. Lavrov hastened to reassure a colleague: the Russian military personnel have been there for a long time, and this is not surprising - current contracts for arms deliveries imply the presence of instructors. And the supply itself does not violate international law.

On September 9, a second call from Kerry was heard: Assad’s military support would not help solve the Syrian issue, on the contrary, only aggravate the situation. But Lavrov is adamant: Russia does not violate anything, its main concern is the thugs from the Islamic State*, which threatens both Russia and the West.

By that time, Kerry already had satellite intelligence data: in Latakia, the local civilian airport and the expansion of the runway (plus the construction of two helicopter venues) based on the Syrian Air Force in Humimimim, near Latakia were in full swing. In addition, repair work was clearly underway on the basis of the Syrian Navy. It would seem: well, repairs, the Russians helped the longtime allies. But Kerry had more obvious evidence on the table that this is not just a repair. On September 8, in the water area between Cyprus and Syria, the exercises of the constant operational connection of the ships of the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean Sea began: 11 ships, of which 6 large landing ones. At the same time, the Russians closed the sky over the field of exercises, releasing a special notification (NOTAM) for pilots of civilian liners “On the restrictions to the echelon 660”, which in translation into an affordable language means: below the 20-kilometer height you do not fly here, otherwise you never know what ... Any politician in their right mind will be asked on the question: what is there on board?

At the same time, there were messages about the frequent flights of Russian distant transporters An-124 (Ruslan) to the shores of Syria. Humanitarian assistance began to suddenly supply so intensively that when Ukraine, Greece and Bulgaria at the insistence of the United States closed air corridors for Ruslans, an alternative route was immediately found - through Iran and Iraq.

On September 15, in Lavrov’s office, the third call from Kerry is heard: “The United States believe that it is necessary to find a decision of the Syrian conflict through the political transfer of power from the president of Assad.” The Secretary of State did not seem to know that Assad himself had just given an interview with the “leading Russian media” (and the Russian bureaucratic New Estate by “leading” means mainly state -owned ones), and in this interview he said: a political decision, that is, the issue of power in Syria, is possible only after the victory over terrorists will be won. And Assad hopes to defeat them, of course, with Russian help. And help goes. The day before the publication of the Assad “Interview”, on September 14, President Putin said in Dushanbe: Russia provided and will support Assad in the fight against IG*militants, who “are already swinging to Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem”. Are there any questions?

When NT asked the head of the Press and Information Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, whether there are any progress in the Russian position in Syria according to the results of three rounds of telephone negotiations of Lavrov-Kerry, she without hesitation sent Putin to Dushanbinsky statements: “Everything is clear, on one page.”

Who are we friends against? The cargo transported on the sides of the "Ruslans" and the landing vessels is not accidental. Although the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reports on the supply of blankets, food and other essential items, information about the appearance of Russian soldiers, tanks and artillery comes from Syria itself.

For example, Salim al-Amar at the Latacian Airport named after Basilya Assada has not yet seen humanitarian assistance, but I saw something else: “Russian transport aircraft are constantly landing that unload people in military uniforms-some of them are then taken to Humaimim (the same place with fruit groves), the other to Tartus”, and there, as you know, is located, according to the terminology of the Russian Ministry of Defense, “Material Point of Material and Technology ensuring the Russian Navy ”, that is, the Russian base.

However, there are no evidence that these people participate in some clashes in Syria, the journalist emphasizes. Most likely, the task is still different: to help Assad’s forces inventory and master the supplied weapons and military equipment. And the fact that the goods supplied by sea and in the air are military in nature, al-Amar does not doubt: “When a Russian ship enters the port of Latakia, the Syrian security forces instantly block all the access roads, unloading commercial goods in the port is instantly stopped, workers and merchants, and extends out.”

Since the beginning of September, Assada, according to various sources, Moscow allegedly transferred about 200 marine infantrymen, at least 14 BTR-82A armored personnel carriers, the seven latest T-90 tanks, and modernized anti-aircraft missile and gun complexes (ZRPKs) “Ill-C1”. True, with the “shells”, in fact, the Zagolina comes out: these ZRPKs are intended mainly to intercept the fast -flying targets, which are clearly not in the arsenal of gihadists from IG*, recalls military analyst Alexander Golts in a conversation with NT . “If rumors (

On the supply of "shells". ) It will be confirmed, it will not be clear who Russia is going to be friends with Assad - against IG* or still the USA, ”the interlocutor of the magazine asks.

Since the beginning of September, Russian distant transporters of the An-124 Ruslan made in Latakia, according to various sources, up to two dozen flights with supposedly a humanitarian cargo
Dangerous maneuvers, despite the presence of a powerful operational grouping of the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, the press is already circulating rumors about the sending to the Syrian shores of the heavy aircraft -carcass cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov and a squadron of five warships with cruise missiles on board. “The maneuvers off the coast of Syria are a demonstration of the flag, should show the readiness of Russia, if necessary, conduct a combat operation,” the expert believes. According to him, the port in Tartus is constantly taking large landing ships that easily contain the Marine Corps battalion. However, the expert is stipulated, "if rumors about the battalion are confirmed, then do not forget: there are enough such forces to protect military facilities, but not for ground operations."

With air operations - otherwise. On the eve of Vladimir Putin’s speech at the UN General Assembly, where it is expected to call for the creation of a new, wider coalition in the struggle against IG*, Russia, for the sake of strengthening the propaganda effect, can apply an airline on the positions of Islamists either from the territory of Iran, or from the already mentioned Humimimima air base. After the government of the strategically important air base in Idlib, Khumaimim became one of the last strongholds of the Assad Loyalists. Russian specialists, apparently, create a multilayer defense system around the base: calculations with artillery guns are deployed on its approaches, additional fortifications are also being built.

“There is also a version that Russia is creating a“ military hub ” - a transshipment point for various types of weapons that will be transmitted to Assad,” Golts shared with the magazine.

And journalist Salim al-Amar, meanwhile, testifies: “In the central regions of Latakia, you notice more and more often-both in military uniform and in civilian clothes. Previously, they were not in such quantities, and this is already beginning to attract the attention of local residents. ”

The worst scenario - if the forces that Moscow tighten in Latakia and off the Syrian coast will be involved in the bloody civil war, which in four years carried away lives of at least 250 thousand people. “When US President John Kennedy sent the military to Vietnam, no one suggested which meat grinder would all end,” Golts recalls. “The escalation is not excluded in such conflicts: first, military advisers are sent, then the Marine Corps battalion to protect them, and then they are forced to send troops because the marine infantrymen and densed with the superior enemy forces.” As a result, the army and the country are sucking into a monstrous funnel width in the years.

* The Islamic State group, or IG, and Al-Qaeda are prohibited in Russia as terrorist organizations.

Photo: AFP Photo/Ho/Sana