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Russia "Confirms" It Has Plans To Restore Assad Government In Syria
Watching the US attempt to explain to the public why Washington can’t join the Russians in targeting extremists in Syria has been entertainment gold. The fundamental PR problem revolves around the fact that the West has gone out of its way to hold up ISIS as the quintessential example of pure, unadulterated evil that must be eradicated at all costs and yet when Moscow began bombing ISIS targets and publicly implored the US to join in, Washington said no.
If you’re the public that seems strange. To be sure, everyday Westerners are accustomed to Russophobic propaganda in the news and in cinema and the public is thoroughly conditioned to think of The Kremlin as a weird, multi-colored palace complex staffed with hundreds of James Bond villains in a country where it’s always dark, and always snowing. That said, Western leaders have had a difficult time explaining why that’s somehow worse than ISIS, whose slickly-produced videos have so far depicted a series of beheadings, a Jordanian pilot being burned alive, “spies” being drowned in a cage, and four men being packed into a Toyota Corolla which is then destroyed at close range by a rocket launcher.
The answer, of course, is that ISIS and the various other extremist groups battling for control of Syria have almost all received training and funding from the US and its regional allies at one point or another and at the end of the day, destroying ISIS nets nothing for Washington in terms of geopolitics. In fact, were the group to go the way of the dinosaurs, it would help to restore the Assad regime which is the worst possible outcome in the eyes of the US, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
In short: from a geopolitical perspective, deterring Assad, Russia, and Iran is much more important than fighting any ragtag band of extremists, but that’s a tough sell to a public that’s grown weary of watching Westerners having their heads chopped off on the nightly news.
Moscow’s position is simple. The Russians are in Syria to restore Assad which means waging war on his enemies and because some of his enemies are terrorists, that means Russia is at war with terror. Putin has made no secret of this, but the US has been forced to act as though he has because without the whole “we can’t be sure what his aims are” line, an impatient public might start to demand answers as to why Washington is so obstinate when it comes to cooperation on anti-terror ops.
Now, Bloomberg reports that Russian officials have “admitted” that Moscow’s goals in Syria go beyond ISIS. Here’s more:
As Russia’s air war in Syria nears its fourth week, officials now admit that Moscow’s aim is far broader than the publicly announced fight against terrorist groups.
The Kremlin’s real goal is to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad retake as much as possible of the territory his forces have lost to opponents, including U.S.-backed rebels, Russian officials told Bloomberg News. Moscow’s deployment of several dozen planes, as well as ships in the Black and Caspian Seas, could last a year or more, one official said.
President Vladimir Putin is willing to run the risk of falling into the kind of quagmire that helped sink the Soviet Union a generation ago for the chance to roll back U.S. influence and demonstrate he can dictate terms to Washington. If the strategy is successful, Russia’s largest military drive in decades outside the former Soviet Union would force the
U.S. and its allies to choose between Assad, whom they oppose for his human-rights abuses, and the brutal extremists of Islamic State.
A top Russian military official said on Friday that the Kremlin sees no moderate opposition in Syria, leaving only terrorists and the pro-Assad forces Moscow is backing.
“In the West, they talk about ‘moderate opposition,’ but we so far haven’t seen any in Syria,” General Andrey Kartapolov, commander of the Russian operation in Syria, told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
“Any person who takes up arms and fights the legal authorities, how moderate can he be?”
That’s a good question, especially considering that Western media outlets (WSJ for instance) are now calling al-Qaeda “moderate.” Back to Bloomberg:
Moscow’s campaign is designed to initially rout the groups that have threatened Assad’s control over key cities in western Syria, both radical Islamists and the so-called moderate rebels backed by the U.S. and its allies. Later there will be a broader offensive against Islamic State in the north and east of the country, say officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters.
And that, you’ll note, is precisely what we said last week. To wit: "Hezbollah and Iranian troops are advancing on Aleppo and Moscow is backing the offensive from the sky which means that the hodgepodge of anti-regime forces that control Syria’s largest city will almost (and we say "almost" because there are no sure things in war) certainly be routed in a matter of weeks if not days, which would effectively serve to restore the Assad regime in Syria. After that, the Russian bear and Qasem Soleimani will turn their eyes to the East of the country and at that point, it is game over for ISIS."
One more time, back to Bloomberg:
Putin believes that Assad, whose forces currently control a quarter of Syrian territory with 60 percent of the population, must be reinforced to ensure that Russia can exert a dominant role in negotiations on a political settlement in Syria, according to people who attended a private meeting with the Russian leader early this month.
Russian officials say they expected a cold reception from the U.S. and its allies. Putin is using personal diplomacy -- a string of private meetings with top leaders and officials from other capitals -- to make his case quietly. Initial indications are that the diplomatic drive has been having some success, with several countries agreeing to military talks to reduce the risks of inadvertent conflict.
Kerry said on Monday he expects to begin talks in the next few days with officials from Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Jordan on restarting efforts to negotiate a political settlement in Syria. The U.S., Russia and Saudi foreign ministers may meet in Vienna soon, Interfax reported.
“Even if there isn’t a radical improvement in the regime’s military fortunes, which is unlikely, at the very least the aim is to consolidate its military and territorial positions to remove the question of Assad’s departure as a precondition for a political settlement,” said Mikhail Barabanov, a senior researcher at the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, which advises the Defense Ministry.
So this is being pitched as some kind of secret that needed to be confirmed by speaking to Russian "officials" with "knowledge of the matter."
As we've said on dozens of occasions, there was never any ambiguity here. Moscow never hid the fact that it intended to prop up the Assad regime. The simple fact is that some of Assad's enemies happen to be terrorists and so, as mentioned above, Russia is fighting a war on terror by default. It just so happens that the West and its Sunni allies are the ones who have trained and armed the terrorists so any move to coordinate with the Russians would mean having to actually make a real effort to rout the very same groups Washington armed on the way to restoring the very same regime the US and others sought to destabilize in the first place. In order to avoid that rather inconvenient outcome, the US simply went the obfuscation rout by (ironically) claiming that Russia was obfuscating.
Of course you needn't have spoken with any Russian officials to uncover this "secret" plan. You could have just listened to Putin's interview with Charlie Rose which was broadcast on national television:
Rose: "Some people say you're in Syria to help Bashar al-Assad"
Putin: "Well, you're right."
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I think what surprises me the most, that there are still people on ZH that think Obama is doing anything relating to calling the shots. If you want some vestige of truth, you should look no further than the Kahzarian\Zionazi back stabbing dual citizenship pricks that have infiltrated our CONGRESS AND HOUSE, a very long time ago.
If it wasen't so painful it would be hilarious.
7 years of this administration making Congress irrelevant, and you're telling me that members of Congress are running the show?
Boy, are you misinformed. Fact is, the leftist progressive commie cabal of Valerie Jarrett, George Soros, Barack Obama, and the rest of the commies in power right now (Samantha Powers, the AG, and all the rest), are the ones destroying this nation and the world. Oh, and don't forget the completely complicit western media giants and The FED and the rest of the central banking cartels.
Sure, go ahead and throw in the insane neocons like John McCain and Lindsey Graham--but they are just willing players in the global war game. The controllers are easy to spot, and they are pure EVIL.
A wise man once told me, the left wing and the right wing, belong to the same bird.
But I will say this, there can be three wings to a bird these days, genetic modifications perhaps. Rothschilds, rockerfeller and warburg wings that is.
There is no left or right. Only liberty or tyranny.
From day one it was patently obvious that Obama had no control over removing the den of vipers - the NEocons - from his cabinet.
He's not Commander in Chief. There is no citizen control of the Military or Security STate
The USA has been so wrong-footed that one can imagine, if they decide to support Putin's drive against terrorist groups.....some CIA handler having to go back to ISIS, "listen guys, sorry, but we need all that shit back that we air-dropped you last month."
True. Every time Obama speaks he puts his "feats" in his mouth.
Wouldn't be the first time we said something like that. During the 2008 Georgia war we lost tons of equipment, including 3 Humvees captured by Russians as trophies of war. We demanded that the Russians give them back, because we weren't "officially" involved in that war, or pay us $450,000. (I never heard if we did get them back - no matter. It made me laugh at the time.)
"The answer, of course, is that ISIS and the various other extremist groups battling for control of Syria have almost all received training and funding from the US and its regional allies at one point or another and at the end of the day, destroying ISIS nets nothing for Washington in terms of geopolitics. In fact, were the group to go the way of the dinosaurs, it would help to restore the Assad regime which is the worst possible outcome in the eyes of the US, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar."
Why no mention of Israel's support for the terrorist groups? Israel lets wounded jihadists come into their countr for medical treatment and is involved in their training in Jordan. The most peculiar observation and the most revealing is the support Israel gives to the takfiris. Israel wants regional chaos so that it can remain the hegemon. Israel clearly runs the US State department; heck the bankers run the US governemnt.
WHY NO MENTION OF RUSSIA INVOLVEMENT IN TERRORISM THE LAST 45 YEARS!
Well, I only count back to 1990 because I consider the country to be under new management since then. We can say all sorts of bad things about the Soviets, but I don't consider Yeltsin and Putin, or even Gorbachev, to be terrorist masterminds. Russian 'involvement' in recent years has been more along the lines of victim than perpetrator.
Because Russia is not the old Soviet Union?
"... almost all received training and funding from the US and its regional allies at one point or another ... "
this, imho, is where most disinformation is generated. in the history of armed rebellious factions it's very seldom that the same little group is funded/trained/sponsored by several countries at the same time, even if allied
evidence for that in Syria: one "Assad regime", one Caliphate, plenty of rebellious groups, each with one special enemy, one special friend and plenty of confusion in between
Unless confusion is deliberate.
If one terror group in Syria is being funded/trained/armed by the Saudis and another by Qatar and several others by Washington and Westminster, does it really make a lot of difference? There's probably coordination going on between the sponsors and training is probably carried out by Washington/CIA in Jordan etc.
I think in this situation all one can really say with certainty is that the terror groups all exist by way of Washington/Westminster and their M/E allies.
Interesting how ZH posters suddenly love Putin, disparage Obama and in-between slag off the Jews. Pity because this is otherwise such a fine website, the best in fact.
ima jew and please dont align me with the likes of nutenyahoo and the kazahrian mafia, thanks.
Fair enough.
Where is the value add in your comment? More name calling.
Putin has demonstrated considerable patience and leadership in a very nasty playground for quite sometime. Those facts are indisputable. Currently you have the Obama Team and NATO members facilitating the largest refugee crisis in history while Putin is attempting to destroy ISIS and to allow people to stay in their own countries.
As for Jew Hating - I personally have many good Jewish friends but you cannot dispute that there are a certain number of members of The Chosen people (Soros, Brzezinkski, Lund, Kissinger, etc) who happen to be, I don't know, at the center of the most fucked up Middle East foreign policy in history then you need to ask questions.
btw-if you are a Dannish Polish I hear the Muslim Refugees really have a prolocivity for the blond haired women so if I were you, I wouldn't be wasting my time here and would be setting up a neighborhood watch.
Brzezinkski is not Jewish but he ticks all the ZioCon warmongering boxes. Will fight his chosen enemies to the last American soldier and dolar.
Well that's why it is the best... but not all jews or people are slagged... just the ones who deserve it.
True.
I didn't see the NECON jews mentioned in this article... but they could have.... and should have... not all jews are bad.. but these neocon zios need to go
Perhaps it is simply that ZH commenters despise 2nd grade propaganda and incompetent governance? LOL :-)
They havent just started to love Pootie they've been jerking off ever since
he got on his horse.
Well I knew that you homosexual theme will begin.
You probably told your creative and unconventional sexual fantasy.
I think you're wrong to characterise ZHers as loving Putin. People all around the world are sick to the teeth with the Western-created chaos that is the Middle East today. From the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 up to the civil war in Syria today and Libya in between. (Did I mention the Ukraine?).
The only person willing to deal with this chaos and rid Syria/Iraq of Western (and Saudi,Qatar) funded/trained/armed/paid mercenaries and terrorists is Putin. If that means restoring Assad to power in Syria and giving Russia/Iran a greater role in the M/E, why should that matter to us? After all he does have the support of his fellow countrymen. His only "crime" in Western eyes is that he refused to allow the Qatar gas pipeline run across Syria. Tough luck Qatar.
Whatever final solution is best for the Middle East, the one inescapable fact is that the current countries responsible for creating the chaos cannot be the same people allowed to sort it out. And I include Israel in that.
Yep
And by not playing ball with the demented, hypocritical West, he became the the most evil leader in the world, more evil than George W. Bush who destroyed Iraq and the Kings of Saudi Arabia who behead their citizens in public for the slightest of crimes.
The Kremlin Web Brigade™ is paid in rubles danepol. P A I D.
Here you got ukrobotic, scribbles more comments, and can earn...
Demand Nuland with cookies.
and Uncle Sam troll are not even paid ? You muritards aka empire of chaos apologists are so ignorant that every other not speaking US clueless diatribe and spinoff is a troll now . Ignorance is stupidity retard. You Suck, Troll.
Flattery will get you nowhere at ZH, doofus.
I state which facts which husrt especially to ignorant muritards like you.
A concise precis of the military situation in Syria, Here.
Syria history lesson. USA wants bad man Assad out of power. USA supports rebels trying to overthrow government. End result..protracted civil war killing at least 250,000..wounding even more. Proportionally this would equate to 4,000,000 USA deaths. Country infrastructure destroyed... Over 3,000,000 are defined as fleeing the country...this equates to 45,000,000 Americans fleeing USA. Does not sound like USA has helped out very much.
So Russia enters the civil war and says..want to keep my ally (Assad) in power. USA says... Russia is a destabilizing force in Syria. They have bad intentions.
Europe says to USA..thanks alot for sending 3,000,000 foreigners to our shores. That just made a mockery of our immigration borders and policy.
And we wonder why the world doesn't just love our passion for exporting freedom.
Thank goodness the US never commits any human rights violations, kills innocent people, perverts justice, accuses the innocent, breaks treaties, usurps international law, violates its own constitution... wait! WTF am I talking about?!?
We need moderate rebels to take over USA
If that includes Al Qaeda or Al Nusra, no thanks. "Moderate" definition is becoming too fuzzy, lately.
"how moderate can he be?"
THAT argument is ridiculous! You really think that a country like Syria is going to have a peaceful change of Government. With Assad in power?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
With this intelligence, your limit - a team of bums to lead, collecting aluminum cans. There you and the road.
They were living peacefully before your arrival, sook.
Putin knows that evil USA Israel and Saudi would use 'moderate rebels' against Russia or anyone else who they want to plunder... like Ukraine...
Good that Putin puts an end to this Evil...
And restoring the legal internationally-recognized Government is bad because.....?
Because Assad is not cooperating with our plans for world domination, and specifically for his country, with our plans for a pipeline or two that we control. The monster!
Oh, and he has a secret police that tortures people. But we would be willing to overlook that if he just went along with the program . . .
It is all Russia's fault.
Russians led on the American new cons to believe all that exceptionalism and sole superpower etc etc.
New Cons started beliveing their own superiority and ability to do anything they wanted.
Now, suddenly Russia is exposing all the weakness of US.
This is creating huge losses for US and its allies who invested heavily on Al Qaeda and ISIS when there was no moderate rebels were available. Now who is going to pay for all this?
Ratsenyuk of Ukraine has a good idea. Sue Russia for a Trillion. West still controls all western Judicial Institutions. Thus anything is possible in the new world today. Western powers even arranged Noble Peace prize for killing millions.
The Game is not over.
Once again, Putin plays chess while Obama plays............ with himeslf.
Just don't call Assad a Soviet State Puppet.
Really?
Some body has to be the puppet.
It isn't Putin is it?
Wonderful article
new word, Russiaphobic
Poor misguided souls who don't really understand Russia like ZH
Don't forget the Zio word every other post.
Don't let the facts hurt ya cunt
He was elected by his people just like US puppet regime leaders in their respective countries. Elections are being rigged in Central and East european states to push pro-nato aganeda parties in lead but don't mention about it too isn't it Uncle sam troll?
The propaganda continues. LOL.
As far as the world is concerned the government of the USSA has lost all credibility and legitimacy. The world is at the grab some popcorn stage, sit back, and watch the USSA empire implode.
Nothing lasts forever. Funny thing is that “We the People” fried our own golden goose due to complacency, incompetence and corruption.
You can delegate authority, but you can never delegate responsibility.
Hope your not claiming RT has credibiltiy and unbiased reporting
there are 2 sides to the propaganda
The term became popular with the commies
they started it, used it to control the masses, we just try to copy
but they are better at it
and don't say Russia is not communist
that would be another lie!
enjoy
+1 for 2nd grade propaganda.
Consider reading Propaganda by Edward L Bernays; a copy can be downloaded at: https://archive.org/details/Propaganda1928ByEdwardL.Bernays .
“don't say Russia is not communist” LOL! A classic. Since I did not say that, then Russia (post 1991) is not communist. Thank you for clearing that up! :-) </sarc>
Russia is not communist.
The communist party would love to run things in Moscow again but they keep getting overwhelmed by the United Russia party. The most votes the communists were able to pull in national elections was 20 pct, but that has dropped lately to 17 or 18 pct. Putin is pulling over 80 pct popularity rating and he will not allow the real communist party (led by Gennady Zyuganov) to drag the country back to the so-called good-old-days of the Soviet Union. They don't like Putin because he got rid of their national holiday (Russia no longer celebrates the anniversary of "The Glorious Revolution") and is gradually privatizing some of the important national industries like Rosneft.
Check out the Russian communist party on Google or Wikipedia.
Russia is not communist.
There, I've said it. Over to you.
Sorry, smacker, dsty is busy right now swinging on Obama's halfrican unit.
He'll be with you as soon as he gets the Negro to spunk.
Really, though....How does Obama sleep at night knowing he's such a pussy!
How about if we butt the fuck out of that shit hole.
Putin has left a "Brown Runway" on the faces of the NeoClowns.....
A new US littoral combat ship--those useless ga-zillion dollar popgun pieces of shit--was just delivered to the US "Navy."
They displace 3400 tons and carry one missile.
Tiny Russian corvettes--four of them--launched 24 cruise missiles from the Caspian sea. Three out of four of those ships displace 900 tons.
On the plus side, when the shooting starts, the LCS will make the F35 non-dogfight third-of-a-billion-dollar "fighters" look competent.
Also on the plus side, when civilization crashes and burns, what passes for the remaining government can park that white elephant in some bay and let a few hundred squatters live there.
Since the U.S. armed terrorist groups in Syria, can we not question the true nature of the 9/11 attacks? After all, the U.S. is now referring to Al Qaeda-affiliated groups as "moderate rebels" and arming them.
So, if we extrapolate and consider the fact that the U.S. says that Al Qaeda attacked us on 9/11, isn't it reasonable to ask whether the U.S. Government was behind the 9/11 attacks through its support of Al Qaeda?
It is still about preventing Qatar and Saudi Arabia from building pipelines to maintain Putins stranglehold on the European gas market.
Everything else is spin
Putin is fighting for Russia's zone of influence, what a patriotic leader is expected to do. The American Empire in this instance is the aggressor.
Arrrgggh
(barfing on abgary1's ignorance)
Usually I would say barf on Huff Poo Russian articles. But this does confirm a reality: Russia is destroying Obama's Syrians with glee
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/eliot-higgins-putin-syria_561fc877e4...
The really interesting part is the tone of the comments, which seem to disagree with Bellingcat's opinion. I saved that article for the comments.
this is where the 1%er's in the govt. education system, teacher's, and professors, earn their pay, k-16 indoctrination.
2. questions, #1, the obvious is coming to light, boots on the ground, how many will Israel, Qatar, s.a., nato send?
#2, will the us run the flag up, and send 10's of thousands of young Americans to die in the m.e., they have before will they do it again?
The "human rights abuses" of Assad cannot hold a candle to the horrific wickedness of Al Nusra Front and other US-backed groups in Syria.
Remember this from high school?
(pulling up pants)
"I must say, Bubba, that was much more moderate. I kinda liked it."
Restore Syria as before
Live & let (US+Saudis+petrodollar) die